Division  J' 
Section 


THi: 

PRACTICAL    COMMENTARY 

on  tKe 

Ne-w  Testament 

Edited  by 

'W.    Robertson   Nicoll 
M.A.,  LL.D. 


The 

PRACTICAL 

COMMENTARY 
On  the  New  Testament 

Edited  by 

W.ROBERTSON  NICOLL,  LL.D.,  D.D. 

Editor  of  "The  Expositor's  [Bible" 

Volume      I.  Colossians  and  Thessalonians, 

Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 
Volume    II.  Epheslans,  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

Volume  III.  Peter,  J.  H.  Jowett 

Volume  IV.  Revelation,  C.  Anderson  Scott 

Others  to  be  announced. 

These  volumes  are  the  first  to  be  announced  of  a 
great  new  undertaking  similar  to  the  universally 
known  Expositor's  Bible.  It  will  be  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  editor  of  that  great  work,  Dr.  W.  Robert- 
son Nicoll,  editor  of  the  British  Weekly^  and  its 
volumes  will  be  the  work  of  the  foremost  living  theo- 
logians. Thoroughly  alive  to  the  necessity  of  taking 
advantage  of  every  help  that  modern  scholarship 
offers,  this  commentary  will  at  the  same  time  retain 
a  healthy  conservatism  of  judgment,  and  its  field  of 
usefulness  will  therefore  be  as  large  as  its  great  fore- 
runner, "  The  Expositor's  Bible." 

Every  volume  of  this  set  will  he  printed  on  spe- 
cially made  paper,  handsomely  and  strongly  bound  in 
extra  cloth,  size  crown  octavo. 

Price  per  volume,  $1.25,  Net 


THE 

BOOK  OF  THE 
REVELATION 


By  the  Rev. 
C.  ANDERSON  SCOTT,  M.A. 

Author  of 
Evangelical  Doctrine,"  "  Bible  Truth,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK 
A.  C.  ARMSTRONG   &  SON 

3  &  5  West  18th  Street,  near  5th  Avenue 
1906 


TO    THE 

REVERED   MEMORY 

OF 

THOMAS   ANDERSON 

MY   FIRST   TEACHER. 


PREFACE 

The  Book  of  Eevelation  is  not  one  the  whole 
meaning  of  which  Hes  upon  the  surface.  It 
differs  from  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  this,  that  the  ideas  it  contains  are  ex- 
pressed not  only  in  words,  but  in  words  and 
symbols.  The  meaning  of  the  symbols  must 
have  been  clear  to  the  first  readers,  but  is 
no  longer  obvious  to  us.  It  can  only  be  ascer- 
tained when  patient  investigation  in  many  fields 
has  reconstructed  the  political,  social,  and 
religious  environment  of  the  Christian  com- 
munities in  "Asia"  at  the  end  of  the  first 
century.  That  reconstruction  is  not  yet  com- 
plete, but  the  remarkable  progress  of  recent 
years  makes  it  already  possible  to  interpret  with 
considerable  certainty  nearly  all  the  symbols 
which  are  used,  and  thus  to  read  the  book 
approximately  as  it  was  read  by  those  to  whom 
it  was  first  addressed. 

The  purpose  of  the  following  chapters  is  first 
to  explain  the  book  as  a  whole  in  the  new 
hght  which  is  shed  upon  it  by  recent  historical 
and  literary  research,  and  then  to  indicate  lines 


viii  PKEFACE 

of  practical  application  for  those  principles  of 
Divine  government  which  it  so  impressively 
illustrates.  The  volume  is  thus  intended  to  be 
complementary  to  the  commentary  in  the  Cen- 
tury Bible,  to  which  reference  should  be  made 
on  questions  of  verbal  interpretation  as  well  as 
all  matters  concerning  authorship,  date,  and 
construction. 

The  commentary  of  Bousset  is  still  the  best 
and  most  illuminating,  but  much  helpful  sug- 
gestion will  also  be  found  in  the  recent  works 
of  Bernhard  Weiss  and  of  Johannes  Weiss.  In 
English  the  intelligent  study  of  the  Eevelation 
has  been  immensely  furthered  by  the  publication 
of  Professor  Ramsay's  Letters  to  the  Seven 
Churches,  of  whose  authoritative  statements 
I  have  availed  myself  freely  in  the  relative 
chapters.  The  English  edition  of  the  Greek 
text  which  will  be  on  the  plane  of  modern 
scholarship  is  still  to  come ;  but  it  may  be 
looked  for  with  confidence  among  those  which 
are  announced  by  Dr.  Swete,  by  Dr.  Moffatt  in 
the  Expositor's  Ch'eek  Testament,  and  by  Dr. 
Charles  in  the  hiternational  Critical  Commen- 
tary. In  the  meantime  I  hope  that  the  follow- 
ing chapters  may  do  something  to  remove  the 
veil  which  has  lain  so  long  upon  the  face  of 
the  reader  of  the  Revelation. 

C.  A.  S. 


C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S 


CHAP.     VERSE  PAGE 

I.     1-3.       What  is  an  Apocalypse?      .         .       1 


I.     4-G.       Where  the  Church  of  the  First 

Century  put  Christ,  and  Why     20 


I.     9-20.     The  Vision  op  the  Son  of  Man  .     34 


II.     1-7.       The   Letter   to   the   Church  at 

Ephesus 49 


II.     8-11.     The    Letter   to   the   Church  at 

Smyrna 66 


II.  12-17.     The   Letter   to   the   Church   at 

Pergamum 81 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.        VERSK  PAGK 

II.  18-29.  The  Letter  to   the  Church  at 

Thyatira 97 


III.     1-6.      The  Letter  to  the  Church  at 

Sardis 113 


III.     7-13     The  Letter  to  the  Church  at 

Philadelphia    .         .         .         .126 


III.  14-22.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  at 

Laodicea 141 


IV.,  V.  The  Vision  op  the  Things  that 

Are  ......  155 


VI.-XVI.      The  Seals,  the  Trumpets,  and 

the  Bowls  .169 


VII.  The  First  Parenthesis  :  the 
Vision  op  the  Eedeemed  in 
Heaven 190 


X.-XI.  13.     The  Second  Parenthesis   .        .  203 


CONTENTS  xi 

CHAP.  VERSE  PAGE 

XII.  The     Third     Parenthesis  : 

THE  Vision  of  the  Woman, 

THE    MaN-ChILD,    and    THE 

Dragon      .        .  .218 


XIII  The  Monstrous  Power  op 

Evil  .        .        .        .231 


XIV.  Anticipatory     Visions     of 

THE    Judgment  .        .  252 


XVII.-XIX.     10.     The    Fall    op    Babylon  — 

ROME  ....  266 


XIX.  11-XXI.  1.    Seven   Visions    concerning 

THE  End  ....  287 


XXI.-XXII.     5.     Jerusalem  prom  Above       .  303 


XXII.  8-21.  The  Epilogue 


WHAT  IS  AN  APOCALYPSE? 

Eev.  i.  1-3 

The  Bevelation  oj  Jesus  Christ,  ivhich  God  gave  him  to 
shoio  unto  his  servants,  even  the  things  which  must  shortly 
come  to  pass  :  and  he  sent  and  signified  it  by  his  angel  unto 
his  servant  John;  who  hare  witness  of  the  word  of  God, 
and  of  the  testimony  of  Jesus  Christ,  even  of  all  things  that 
he  saw.  Blessed  is  he  that  readeth,  and  they  that  hear  the 
words  of  the  prophecy,  and  Iteep  the  things  which  are 
zvritten  therein;  for  the  time  is  at  hand  {B.V.). 

The  name  by  which  this  book  would  be  known 
to  its  earliest  readers  among  the  Christians  of 
Asia  Minor  would  be  "  the  Apocalypse,"  or  "  the 
Apocalypse  of  John."  This  is  the  name  which 
it  bears  in  the  original  Greek,  not  only  in  the 
**  title,"  which  is  later  than  the  book,  but  in  the 
opening  words,  ''The  Eevelation  of  Jesus  Christ," 
where  ''  Eevelation  "  is  the  rendering  of  the  word 
"Apocalypse."  Now,  those  among  its  first 
readers  who  had  been  Jews  ere  they  became 
Christians  would  be  quite  familiar  with  a  title 
such  as  this ;  it  would  not  be  the  first  book 
bearing    this  name  with  which  they  were   ac- 

2 


2         THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

quainted,  and  they  would  be  prepared  for  the 
character  of  its  contents  and  the  peculiar  forms 
which  they  take.  By  the  word  itself,  which 
exactly  corresponds  in  its  etymology  to  our  word 
"Kevelation,"  they  would  understand  the  remov- 
ing of  a  veil,  the  veil  which  hides  the  future  from 
the  eyes  of  men.  And  the  period  between  the 
close  of  the  Old  Testament  Canon  and  the  end 
of  the  first  century  after  Christ  had  seen  the 
production  of  many  books  which  had  this 
purpose  and  bore  this  name.  The  earliest  speci- 
men of  an  Apocalypse — the  one  which  is  indeed 
the  prototype  of  them  all — is  found  within  the 
Old  Testament  itself  in  the  Book  of  Daniel ;  but 
this  had  been  followed  by  many  others,  the 
names  of  which  are  less  familiar  to  us  than 
they  were  to  the  Jews.  There  is,  for  example, 
the  Book  of  Enoch,  of  Jewish  authorship,  and 
composed  at  different  periods  in  the  second  and 
first  centuries  before  Christ.  It  was  for  long 
regarded  by  both  Jews  and  Christians  as  inspired. 
It  is  quoted  by  name  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude,  and 
probably  referred  to  in  the  opening  chapter  of 
the  first  Epistle  of  Peter.  It  consists  largely 
of  visions  which  purport  to  have  been  seen  by 
Enoch,  '*  the  seventh  from  Adam,"  and  is  written 
in  the  first  person  as  though  by  Enoch  himself. 
There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  it  is  the 
production  of  a  much  later  age.     Then  there  is 


CHAPTEK  I.   1-3  3 

the  Assumption  of  Moses,  from  which,  in  all 
probability,  St.  Jude  derived  his  allusion  to 
"Michael  the  archangel  contending  for  the  body 
of  Moses."  Another  book  of  this  class  which 
had  wide  circulation  and  great  influence  in  both 
Jewish  and  Christian  circles  is  the  Fourth  Book 
of  Esdras,  or  Esra,  which  is  more  familiar  than 
the  others,  because  it  is  found  in  the  Apocrypha. 
Like  Enoch,  it  is  quoted  by  many  of  the  early 
fathers  as  a  work  of  genuine  inspiration,  and 
it  is  of  special  interest  to  us  because  it  is 
practically  contemporary  with  the  Apocalypse 
of  St.  John.  It  also  is  a  record  of  many  visions, 
and  makes  even  more  abundant  use  of  the 
symbolism  of  beasts  with  many  heads  and 
eagles  with  many  wings. 

There  are  still  several  other  Jewish  works  of 
this  class  which  might  be  enumerated ;  but  it  is 
not  necessary  to  do  so  here,  nor  yet  to  describe 
further  the  contents  of  this  Apocalyptic  literature. 
Our  main  purpose  is  to  call  attention  to  its  exist- 
ence, and  to  the  great  interest  taken  in  it  by 
many  Jews  of  the  first  century,  and  now  to 
indicate  briefly  the  general  character  of  these 
books  in  order  that  we  may  have  an  idea  of  what 
our  Book  of  Eevelation  means  by  calling  itself  an 
Apocalypse. 

The  first  thing  to  observe  is  the  kind  of  atmo- 
sphere,  political  and    religious,  in  which    they 


4  THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

flourish.  An  Apocalypse  is  the  product  of  "  bad 
times" — bad  times  for  the  Church,  the  people,  and 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  cause  of  this  con- 
dition of  affairs  is  seen  to  be  a  double  one, 
external  and  internal.  The  external  cause  is  the 
oppression  of  the  enemy,  the  fact  that,  for  a  time 
at  least,  the  foes  of  righteousness  have  got  the 
upper  hand,  the  people  of  God  are  suffering 
persecution,  the  present  is  dark,  and  the  imme- 
diate future  darker  still.  Hope,  at  least  for  this 
world,  is,  humanly  speaking,  almost  at  an  end. 
Nothing  short  of  **  a  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth  "  can  bring  redress  and  security.  And  the 
internal  cause  is  the  absence  of  any  ''  open  vision." 
Apocalyptic  is  the  successor  of  prophecy :  it  comes 
into  vogue  when,  and  because,  prophecy  has 
ceased.  The  period  following  on  the  close  of  the 
Old  Testament  is  full  of  evidence  that  men  were 
sadly  conscious  that  it  was  so  with  them.  There 
was  no  longer  any  one  by  whom  it  could  be  said, 
"  The  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  me."  And  men 
who  desired  to  find  a  message  of  mingled  warning 
and  encom-agement  for  their  contemporaries, 
turned  to  the  prophets  for  their  inspiration,  and 
tried  to  read  the  future  in  the  light  of  the 
principles  they  laid  down.  The  prophet  had 
been  first  and  foremost  an  orator,  a  speaker- 
forth  of  the  mind  of  God  to  men.  The 
Apocalyptist  is  a  writer:    he  writes  in  solitude 


CHAPTEK  I.   1-3  5 

what  another  may  read  in  public.  He  is  a  seer. 
He  sees  the  future  as  it  needs  must  shape  itself  in 
accordance  with  the  principles  of  Divine  govern- 
ment, and  the  attributes  of  the  Divine  Being, 
which  have  been  revealed  through  the  prophets. 
He  is  not  conscious  of  personal  inspiration  such 
as  would  enable  him  to  reveal  new  truth,  but 
acts  rather  as  the  interpreter  of  earlier  revelation, 
showing  how  it  may  be  applied  to  his  own  present 
or  to  the  immediate  future. 

This  twofold  characteristic  of  the  situation  out 
of  which  the  Apocalypses  spring,  the  oppression 
of  God's  people  and  the  absence  of  direct  in- 
spiration, leads  to  the  second  and  most  striking 
feature  of  all  these  books,  namely,  that  they 
transfer  the  scene  of  God's  manifested  glory  from 
the  world  that  now  is  to  a  world  which  is  to 
come,  or  (giving  a  slightly  different  rendering  to 
the  word  represented  by  "  world  ")  from  the 
present  **  age  "  to  a  future  one.  In  other  words, 
they  interpose  between  their  own  time  and  the 
fulfilment  of  God's  promises  a  crisis  and  catas- 
trophe so  great  that  it  may  be  identified  with  the 
last  judgment,  overturning  so  completely  the 
present  constitution  of  the  world,  that  what 
follows  it  is  "a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth." 
In  this  we  see  the  greatest  distinction  between 
them  and  the  prophets  of  Israel,  who  had  foretold 
the  fulfilment  of  God's  promises  under  the  con- 


6         THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

ditions  of  the  life  that  now  is.  They  predicted  a 
golden  age  for  Israel,  marked  by  the  restoration 
of  Jerusalem,  the  return  of  the  captives,  and  the 
establishment  of  an  ideal  kingdom  upon  earth  in 
the  rule  of  the  Messiah.  The  glories  of  this 
Messianic  age  were  to  be  largely  of  a  material  and 
earthly  kind :  they  are  expressed  in  terms  of  earthly 
prosperity.  When  the  horizon  of  the  life  that 
now  is  remained  so  bright,  it  is  little  wonder 
that  the  Jews  before  the  Exile  betray  but  little 
interest  in  the  Hfe  that  is  to  come.  The  hope 
of  immortality  was  at  best  but  dim,  partly  at 
least  because  the  need  for  it  was  but  hghtly 
felt. 

The  Apocalypses,  beginning  with  Daniel,  show 
a  change  of  profound  significance.  The  keynote 
of  their  conception  is  found  in  the  saying  which 
becomes  current  after  the  Exile  :  "  God  has  made 
not  one  w^orld  but  two,  not  one  age  but  two  ages." 
That  is  to  say,  this  world,  this  age,  this  dispen- 
sation, is  to  be  followed  by  another,  the  outward 
conditions  of  which  will  be  very  different,  and 
the  transition  from  the  one  to  the  other  is  the 
crisis  of  judgment.  Isaiah  looks  forward  to  the 
establishment  of  a  Messianic  kingdom  upon  earth, 
where  **  the  cow  and  the  bear  shall  feed,  the  lion 
shall  eat  straw  like  the  ox,  and  none  shall  hurt  or 
destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain."  The  trans- 
formation is  a  moral  and  spiritual  one  rather  than 


CHAPTEE  I.   1-3  7 

a  physical ;  and  even  the  "  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth "  of  this  prophet's  prediction  leaves 
room  for  the  '*  sinner  of  an  hundred  years  old." 
The  Apocalypses,  on  the  other  hand,  look  through 
and  beyond  any  such  tentative  realisation  of  the 
Messiah's  kingdom  to  an  entire  reconstitution  of 
the  conditions  of  life.  In  their  ''  new  heaven 
and  new  earth"  there  is  "no  curse  anymore," 
neither  any  place  for  the  "  fearful  and  the 
unbelieving."  The  centre  of  the  prophets'  hope 
is  a  restored  and  glorified  Sion  upon  earth :  the 
Apocalyptists  interpret  these  prophecies  in  what 
we  should  call  a  spiritual  sense,  and  all  their  gaze 
is  fixed  upon  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  the  city  of 
the  living  God  "  coming  down  from  heaven." 
Thus,  in  passing  from  prophecy  to  Apocalypse, 
we  pass  from  the  expectation  that  God's  right- 
eousness and  glory  will  be  completely  vindi- 
cated on  earth  to  the  expectation  that  they 
will  be  vindicated  finally  and  completely  only 
in  heaven. 

It  would  be  hard  to  overestimate  the  change 
in  human  thought  and  outlook  which  is  here 
involved ;  and  yet  there  is  a  point  of  view  from 
which  these  two  convictions,  apparently  so  con- 
tradictory, are  seen  to  lie  side  by  side,  in  perfect 
harmony,  and  that  is  the  point  of  view  of  Jesus. 
When  He  declared,  **  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
within    you,"   He    revealed    a    higher  truth    in 


8  THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

which  both  the  earher  ones  find  their  harmony. 
He  declared  in  effect  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
not  conditioned  either  by  space  or  time,  that  it 
does  not  follow  the  life  that  now  is,  as  the 
Apocalyptists  thought,  but  penetrates  and  per- 
meates it  ;  and  on  the  other  hand  that  it  is  not 
exhausted  in  any  earthly  manifestation,  as  the 
prophets  thought  it  might  be,  but  finds  its  con- 
summation in  the  world  to  come,  the  life  beyond 
the  grave. 

A  third  characteristic  which  all  these  Jewish 
Apocalypses  have  in  common  is  to  our  minds  a 
startling,  and  even  a  perplexing  one.  It  need 
not  disturb  the  study  of  our  Apocalypse,  which  in 
this  matter  differs  from  all  the  others;  but  the 
fact  is  nevertheless  important,  that  they  are  all 
*'  pseudonymous."  That  is  to  say,  they  bear  the 
name,  and  are  written  in  the  name,  of  some  one 
who  was  not  their  author.  The  names  they  bear, 
such  as  Enoch,  Moses,  Isaiah,  Baruch,  Esra,  and 
so  forth,  are  names  of  men  who  were  dead  and 
gone  many  centuries  before  these  works  were 
written.  And  yet  there  is  no  room  for  any 
suggestion  of  fraud  or  deception  practised  on 
the  contemporaries  of  the  actual  writers.  In  all 
probabihty,  it  was  a  well-understood  device, 
adopted  for  reasons  that  were  equally  well  under- 
stood, reasons  partly  political  and  partly  religious. 
To  appreciate  the  point  of  view  from  which  this 


CHAPTER  I.   1-3  9 

was  possible,  we  require  to  divest  our  minds  of 
our  modern  ideas  of  literary  property.  In  Hebrew 
literature  there  is  no  trace  of  any  writer  regarding 
his  work  as  in  any  sense  his  property  or  of  any 
benefit  accruing  to  him  from  its  production ;  nor 
is  there  any  trace  of  one  writer  recognising  the 
writings  of  another  as  his  property.  Men  wrote 
then  for  altogether  different  motives  from  those 
which  have  prevailed  especially  since  the  inven- 
tion of  printing.  They  wrote  neither  for  fame 
nor  for  profit,  but  simply  to  help  other  men  by 
recording  the  thoughts  which  God  had  given 
either  to  themselves  or  to  others.  Those  who 
wrote  under  a  strong  sense  of  being  commissioned 
by  God  to  address  men,  did  nothing,  indeed,  to 
conceal  their  own  personality.  In  their  case 
the  personality  added  weight  to  the  message. 
Others,  again,  writing  without  that  sense,  wrote 
anonymously,  as  in  the  cases  of  Lamentations, 
parts  of  Proverbs,  or  Jonah.  The  third  class, 
who  belonged  to  a  time  when  it  was  a  matter  of 
common  consciousness  that  there  was  no  longer 
any  open  vision,  frankly  attached  their  work  to 
the  name  of  one  long  ago  departed,  on  the  ground 
that  they  felt  their  spirit  or  their  message  in 
harmony  with  his.  So  far  from  being  either 
anomalous  or  fraudulent  in  its  purpose,  this 
pseudonymous  writing  was  one  of  the  recog- 
nised Hterary  methods    of    the    time,   and    one 


10        THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

which  was  followed  with  an  entire  absence  of 
any  intention  to  deceive. 

We  mark  this  common  characteristic  of  the 
Jewish  Apocalypses,  however,  rather  as  a  point 
of  contrast  with  the  Apocalypse  of  John,  which 
is  neither  anonymous  nor  pseudonymous,  but 
stamped  at  more  places  than  one  with  the  name 
of  its  author,  and  that  the  name  of  a  living 
man  personally  known  to  many  of  his  first 
readers. 

A  fourth  characteristic  of  these  books  is  to  be 
noted  and  carefully  borne  in  mind,  and  that  is 
the  use  made  by  a  writer  of  an  Apocalypse  of  the 
material  provided  by  his  predecessors.  This  is  at 
once  abundant  and  free.  Not  only  does  he  quote, 
and  that  without  indicating  where  he  quotes  from, 
but  his  method  consists  largely  in  quoting  with 
such  alterations  and  modifications  as  may  make 
the  old  material  serve  the  needs  of  a  new  time. 
It  follows  that  in  many  instances  the  writer's 
distinctive  contribution  is  to  be  found  rather  in 
the  modification  which  he  introduces  than  in  the 
material  which  he  actually  makes  use  of.  The 
most  considerable  source  from  which  these  later 
writers  draw  is  undoubtedly  the  Book  of  Daniel. 
In  this  we  meet  for  the  first  time  many  of  the 
symbolic  figures  and  actions  which  became,  as  it 
were,  apocalyptic  conventions,  part  of  the  frame- 
work or  setting    in    which,    from    thenceforth, 


CHAPTEE  I.  1-3  11 

Apocalyptic  ideas  were  commonly  expressed. 
Thus,  the  method  of  representing  the  great 
world-powers  under  the  forms  of  various  living 
creatures,  and  their  kings  as  *' heads"  of  a 
"  beast,"  the  introduction  of  Antichrist  or  the 
"  abomination  of  desolation "  as  part  of  the 
"  world-process  "  of  the  future,  and  the  computa- 
tion of  the  duration  of  his  reign  by  means  of 
cryptic  numbers,  these  are  only  some  of  the 
features  which  make  their  earliest  appearance  in 
Daniel,  to  form  afterwards  part  of  the  material 
with  which  the  Apocalyptists  work. 

These,  then,  are  the  most  important  features 
which  mark  the  Apocalypses  as  a  form  of  litera- 
ture. They  are  also  marked  by  a  common  pur- 
pose. An  Apocalypse  is  a  ''  Tract  for  Bad  Times," 
intended  to  encourage  God's  people  suffering 
under  the  strain  of  oppression  and  persecution. 
The  writer's  object  is  to  steel  them  to  patience 
and  endurance  unto  the  end  by  the  presentation 
in  the  most  vivid  form  of  the  fact  which  overrides 
all  others,  "  the  Lord  reigneth,"  and  will  surely 
come  with  a  recompense.  The  assurance  is  con- 
veyed by  means  of  a  series  of  pictures  of  the 
future,  or  visions  of  the  real  but  unseen  present. 
The  personality  and  inspiration  of  the  writer  dis- 
play themselves  not  in  the  material  which  he  may 
have  derived  from  earlier  sources,  but  in  the  selec- 
tion he  makes,  in  the  adaptation  he  puts  upon  it. 


12       THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

the  interpretation  of  the  world's  history  which 
clothes  itself  in  these  forms. 

On  two  points,  however,  our  Apocalypse,  the 
Book  of  Eevelation,  differs  from  the  others  with 
which  we  are  acquainted.  First,  as  we  have 
already  observed,  it  is  not  pseudonymous.  It 
does  not  claim  to  have  been  written  by  a  great 
prophet  or  religious  leader  of  the  past,  but  claims 
to  come  from  the  pen  of  a  contemporary  of  those 
to  whom  it  first  came.  It  claims,  further,  to  be 
written  by  one  John,  a  disciple  of  Christ,  and  a 
person  of  acknowledged  authority  and  influence 
in  the  Churches  of  the  Koman  province  of  Asia. 
Very  early  tradition  asserts  that  this  John  was 
no  other  than  John  the  son  of  Zebedee,  one  of 
the  Twelve,  the  one  whom  Jesus  loved,  to  whom 
the  Church  ascribes  also  the  authorship  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel.  And  while  no  doubt  has  been 
ever  raised  as  to  the  justice  of  the  claim  to  be 
written  by  a  contemporary,  and  by  one  w^hose 
name  was  John,  the  tradition  that  this  was 
John  the  Apostle  has  also  met  with  general 
acceptance ;  although  there  are  those  who  would 
recognise  in  the  author  another  John,  who  is  dis- 
tinguished from  the  Apostle  as  the  "Presbyter" 
or  Elder.*  But  inasmuch  as  he  also  was  one  of 
the  circle   of   our  Lord's  personal  disciples,  as- 

^'  See  further  on  this  and  other  matters  above  mentioned 
in  the  Century  Bible,  Eevelation,  pp.  13-45. 


CHAPTEE  I.   1-3  13 

sociated  with  Him  during  His  earthly  ministry, 
it  does  not  greatly  matter  for  our  present  purpose 
which  of  the  two  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  author. 
In  either  case  he  was  a  Jew,  one  who  had  known 
Jesus  according  to  the  flesh,  and  had  companied 
with  Him  as  He  walked  and  taught  among  men. 

The  second  point  of  difference  is  that  this  book 
is  written  by  one  who  is  conscious  of  being  a 
prophet.  He  followed  the  Apocalyptic  method 
in  making  use  of  earlier  material,  but  he  was 
not  as  the  other  Apocalyptists  referred  to  above, 
a  mere  adapter  and  interpreter  of  earlier  Apoca- 
lyptic visions.  He  was  one  of  the  new  order  of 
prophets — Christian  prophets — who  made  their 
appearance  after  Pentecost,  and  played  a  great 
part  in  the  Church  of  the  first  century.  He 
spake,  being  moved  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 
But  the  form  into  which  he  threw  his  utterance 
was  that  of  an  Apocalypse,  and  we  may  be  pre- 
pared to  find  his  work  marked  by  some  of  the 
characteristics  common  to  the  class. 

John  records  in  this  book  the  vision  or  visions 
he  had  seen  in  Patmos,  but  he  does  more.  The 
visions  set  his  prophetic  activity  in  motion.  It 
was  probably  after  he  had  left  the  isle  of  his 
banishment  that  he  committed  to  writing  what 
had  been  given  him  to  see.  And  as  he  weaves 
together  his  record  of  that,  he  weaves  in  other 
things  the  fruit  of   meditation  on  his  strange 


14       THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

experience,  fragments  and  echoes  of  Old  Testa- 
ment prophecy  and  Apocalypse,  and,  it  may  be, 
fragments  of  other  Apocalypses  which  were 
precious  in  his  sight.  It  is  impossible,  and  it 
is  not  necessary,  to  distinguish  what  he  had 
actually  seen  from  the  thoughts  and  memories 
and  predictions  which  he  thus  wrought  into  the 
record  of  his  visions.  He  had  seen  a  picture 
or  pictures  of  infinite  wonder ;  he  had  heard  the 
voice  of  Christ  commanding  him  to  write  not 
only  **the  things  which  thou  hast  seen,"  but 
also  the  things  which  are  and  the  things  which 
shall  be  hereafter.  He  was  at  once  the  describer 
of  his  vision  and  its  interpreter,  delineator  of  the 
world  as  seen  by  the  eye  of  God,  and  prophet 
of  the  things  that  must  shortly  come  to  pass. 
Under  the  form  of  an  Apocalypse  he  spoke  as  a 
prophet. 

The  time  seems  to  have  come  when  we  are 
called  upon  to  give  new  heed  to  his  message,  and 
to  employ  the  new  material  which  has  been 
accumulating  for  its  just  interpretation.  For 
some  time  past  the  Apocalypse  and  the  circle  of 
ideas  which  it  represents  have  suffered  from  com- 
parative neglect.  This  is  in  part  due  to  the 
uncertainty  of  its  interpretation  and  the  vagaries 
of  its  interpreters.  In  part  it  is  due  to  our  pre- 
occupation with  the  opposite  pole  of  Christian 
hope    and    consciousness,    that    which    may  be 


CHAPTEK  I.   1-3  15 

called  the  ethical.  The  world  that  now  is,  and 
the  world  that  is  to  be,  these  are  the  two  foci 
of  an  ellipse  of  great  orbit,  round  which  the  mind 
of  Christendom  has  travelled  several  times,  held 
in  its  place  by  its  relation  to  both  these /oci,  but 
nearer  now  to  one  and  now  to  the  other.  The 
mind  of  the  Church  has  been  at  one  time  more 
clearly  conscious  of  her  redemptive  mission  to 
society,  at  another  of  her  native  opposition  to  the 
world  as  now  constituted.  Her  attitude  over 
against  that  world  has  been  now  one  of  hope 
that  the  Kingdom  of  God  might  come  to  be 
realised  under  present  conditions,  now  one  of 
despair  as  looking  for  that  realisation  only  under 
the  conditions  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth. 
There  has  also  been  a  tendency  in  those  who 
stood  at  one  point  of  view,  to  criticise  those  who 
occupied  the  other,  not  having  reached  the  higher 
point  where  both  are  seen  as  one.  For  it  is 
undeniable  that  both  points  of  view  find  recogni- 
tion in  our  Scriptures,  and  may  indeed  be  found 
in  the  teaching  of  our  Lord.  The  one  serious 
mistake  we  have  to  learn  to  avoid  is  that  we 
should  insist  on  making  either  of  these  foci  the 
centre  round  which  our  life  and  thought  are  to 
turn ;  and  the  one  secret  of  harmonious  thinking 
in  justice  to  all  we  know  of  God  is  to  recognise 
that  in  Christ  Jesus  the  two  coincide,  that  for  us 
in  Him  they  are  continuously  approximating,  and 


16        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

so  the  thought  and  Hfe  which  revolve  round  both 
these  points  in  equal  balance  tend  to  move  in 
a  perfect  circle.  The  ethical  and  the  Apocalyptic 
elements  both  have  their  place  in  the  Christian 
system ;  both  are  necessary  factors  in  redemption. 
No  wise  man  will  presume  to  dogmatise  on  the 
historical  movement  in  the  midst  of  which  he 
stands;  but  unless  the  signs  of  the  times  are 
very  deceptive,  we  are  at  or  near  a  point  where  the 
emphasis  which  has  for  fifty  years  been  laid  upon 
the  reahsation  of  the  kingdom  upon  earth  wdll 
make  way  for  a  new  emphasis  to  be  laid  on  the 
transcendental  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  We  have 
most  of  us  lived  through  an  era  of  enthusiasm 
for  social  amelioration  as  the  tangible  working 
out  of  God's  will  for  men.  Stimulated  by  the 
X3reaching  of  F.  D.  Maurice  and  Charles  Kingsley, 
by  the  preaching  and  social  work  of  Thomas 
Chalmers,  roused  by  the  pungent  satire  and 
inspired  by  the  ideas  of  Thomas  Carlyle,  stung 
by  the  polished  criticism  of  Matthew  Arnold, 
and  less  reasonably  so  by  the  sneers  levelled 
by  George  Eliot  at  other-worldliness,  English 
Christianity  during  this  period  came  to  be  pene- 
trated as  never  before  with  the  conception  of  the 
service  of  man  as  a  duty  to  God.  Attention  was 
concentrated  upon  the  life  that  now  is,  on  the 
ethical  side  of  religion,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
and  the  amelioration  of  the  conditions  of  existence 


CHAPTEE  I.  1-3  17 

for  the  poor  and  suffering.  The  poet  of  the  period 
was  Tennyson  with  "LocksJey  Hall,"  "Maud," 
and  **  The  Princess";  its  statesmen.  Bright  and 
Cobden,  passionate  for  the  rights  of  the  people 
and  the  welfare  of  the  masses  ;  its  martyr,  Arnold 
Toynbee,  burning  himself  out  in  the  effort  to 
instil  into  the  rich  their  obligation  to  the  poor. 

The  governing  idea  less  or  more  consciously 
present  to  the  minds  of  these  men  was  the 
Kingdom  of  God  to  be  established  upon  earth,  for 
whose  reahsation  men  were  called  upon  to  strive 
and  pray  and  suffer.  Their  attitude  to  God  might 
be  expressed  in  the  words  of  the  disciples  on  the 
way  to  Emmaus:  "Wilt  thou  not  at  this  time 
restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel?  "  Wilt  Thou  not 
here  and  now  and  under  the  conditions  of  this 
present  life  ^establish  the  rule  of  justice,  mercy, 
and  peace?  And  there  was  an  under-running 
current  of  suggestion  that  if  God  would  not,  or 
did  not,  manifest  His  power  in  this  way,  if  the 
Church  could  not  on  this  plane  vindicate  her 
claim  to  be  the  agent  of  the  Divine  redemption, 
it  hardly  mattered  what  God  might  do  or  not  do 
under  other  conditions  and  in  another  world. 

Now  the  situation  is  changed :  for  good  or  for 
evil  we  find  ourselves  living  in  a  different  moral 
atmosphere.  The  mere  rehearsal  of  these  mid- 
Victorian  names  carries  with  it  the  impression 
that  whoever  may  be  the  men  that  influence  our 

3 


18        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

generation  and  express  its  attitude  to  life,  it  is 
not  these.  Many  of  the  principles  which  they 
held  to  be  axiomatic,  or  demonstrated  through 
their  effort,  are  now  dismissed  or  ignored.  Many 
of  the  ideals  which  they  assumed  as  desirable  or 
desired  by  all  are  now  questioned  or  scouted. 
The  principles  are  not  the  less  true;  the  ideals 
are  not  the  less  noble  and  ennobling ;  but  those 
who  assert  them  are  not  the  voices  which  are 
heard;  what  was  once  a  commonplace  of  public 
life  may  now  sound  as  a  lonely  echo  from  the 
desert.  Like  every  partial  failure  of  human 
aspiration,  this  change  has  been  due  in  large 
measure  to  one-sidedness,  to  concentration  on 
one  half  of  the  complete  ideal,  in  this  case  con- 
centration on  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  coming  by 
process  only,  and  under  the  conditions  of  the  life 
that  now  is,  and  to  the  ignoring  of  the  other  half 
of  truth,  the  conception  of  the  Kingdom  as  not  of 
this  world,  as  finding  its  consummation  under  con- 
ditions of  spiritual  existence,  and  after  a  crisis, 
a  catastrophe,  which  for  the  individual  is  repre- 
sented by  death,  and  for  humanity  by  the  crash 
of  judgment.  In  other  words,  through  their 
enthusiasm  for  the  teaching  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  men  were  led  to  overlook  the  teaching 
of  Matthew  xxiv. ;  in  their  devotion  to  the 
ethical  and  practical  they  forgot  the  mystical  and 
transcendental  elements  in  the  system  of  Jesus ; 


CHAPTEK  I.   1-3  19 

they  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  prophets,  but  the 
Apocalypse  was  a  book  of  unimportant  mysteries. 
It  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  accidental  or 
without  significance  that  in  the  last  ten  or  twenty 
years  there  has  been  a  marked  revival  of  interest 
in  the  whole  subject  and  literature  of  Apocalypse. 
Both  the  Christian  and  the  Jewish  conceptions  of 
the  world  to  come,  of  judgment,  of  the  reign  of 
God  in  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  have  been 
investigated  with  a  thoroughness  which  sheds  a 
new  light  on  this  whole  area  of  thought.  The 
pendulum  has  swung  so  far  in  the  new  direction 
that  at  least  one  competent  scholar  of  the  New 
Testament  has  advanced  the  opinion  that  the  real 
emphasis  of  our  Lord's  teaching  is  to  be  found 
less  in  the  ethical  standards  therein  set  up  for  the 
present  than  in  the  Apocalyptic  revelation  of  the 
future.  The  time  seems  to  have  come,  therefore, 
for  making  the  attempt  to  expound,  with  the  aid 
of  the  new  material,  the  meaning  and  value  of 
the  one  Apocalypse  contained  in  our  New  Testa- 
ment, in  the  hope  of  restoring  it,  if  possible,  to  its 
proper  place  in  our  private  as  well  as  our  public 
Canon  of  Scripture. 


WHEEE  THE  CHUKCH  OF  THE  FIBST 
CENTUKY  PUT   CHKIST,   AND  WHY 

Rev.  i.  4-6 

John  to  the  seven  churches  which  are  in  Asia  :  Grace  to 
you  and  peace,  from  him  which  is  and  which  was  and  which 
is  to  come;  and  from  the  seven  Spirits  which  are  before 
his  throne ;  and  from  Jesus  Christ,  who  is  the  faithful 
witness,  the  firstborn  of  the  dead,  and  the  ruler  of  the 
lings  of  the  earth.  Unto  him  that  loveth  us,  and  loosed 
us  from  our  sins  by  his  blood;  and  he  made  us  to  be  a 
Txingdom,  to  be  priests  unto  his  God  and  Father;  to  him 
be  the  glory  and  the  dominion  for  ever  and  ever.    Amen 

We  have  learnt  in  the  previous  chapter  what  it 
means  that  in  the  Book  of  Revelation  we  have 
*'  words  of  prophecy  "  in  the  form  of  an  Apoca- 
Ij^pse.  The  writer  is  one  of  the  new  order  of 
Christian  prophets,  corresponding  to  those  of  the 
Old  Testament,  but  proclaiming  the  mind  and 
will  of  God  in  the  name,  and  in  the  spirit,  of 
Jesus.  To  him  has  been  given  while  '*  in  the  isle 
that  is  called  Patmos"  a  mighty  vision  of  things 
to  come ;   and  he  obeys  the  injunction  to  write 

20 


CHAPTEK  I.   4-6  21 

down  **the  things  which  he  has  seen,"  along 
with  **the  things  which  are."  In  doing  so  he 
weaves  into  his  description  much  that  is  the  fruit 
of  meditation  on  what  he  has  seen,  much  that 
was  lying  in  his  memory,  handed  down  from  the 
prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  possibly 
some  things  contained  in  later  Jewish  literature 
with  which  he  must  have  been  familiar  from  his 
early  days.  These  things  provided  to  a  consider- 
able extent  the  forms  into  which  he  threw  the 
description  of  what  he  had  seen,  the  colours  with 
which  he  worked  in  building  up  his  picture ;  and 
the  whole  took  shape  as  an  Apocalypse,  one  of  a 
well-known  and  well-defined  class  of  literature, 
with  rules  and  methods  of  its  own.  Just  as  St. 
Luke,  writing  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  wrote 
historj^  and  St.  Paul,  writing  to  Timothy,  wrote 
an  Epistle,  so  St.  John  wrote  an  Apocalypse. 

Before,  however,  he  comes  to  the  actual  vision, 
the  description  of  the  things  which  he  has  seen, 
and  the  prediction  of  the  things  which  are  to 
come,  he  sets  before  his  readers,  in  vers.  4-6,  a 
wonderful  description  of  the  things  which  are. 

"  John  to  the  seven  churches  that  are  in  Asia : 
Grace  to  you  and  peace  from  him  who  is,  and 
who  was,  and  who  is  to  come  :  and  from  the  seven 
Spirits  that  are  before  his  throne  :  and  from  Jesus  Verses 
Christ,  who  is  the  faithful  witness,  the  firstborn  of 
the  dead,  and  the  ruler  of  the  kings  of  the  earth. 
Unto  him  that  loveth  us,  and  loosed  us  from  our 


4-6. 


22        THE  BOOK  OF  BEVELATION 

Verses  sins  by  his  blood:    and   he   made    us   to   be    a 

4-6.  kingdom,  to  be  priests  unto  his  God  and  Father : 

to  him  be  the  glory  and  the  dominion  for  ever  and 


The  form  into  which  this  rich  and  compre- 
hensive statement  is  thrown  is  that  of  an 
address  or  salutation  to  the  Churches  in  Asia 
Minor  with  which  the  Apostle  was  personally 
acquainted.  To  them,  in  the  first  place,  his 
message  was  to  be  directed,  but  through  them, 
as  a  representative  group,  to  the  Church  as  a 
whole.  It  is  a  salutation,  passing  into  a  bene- 
diction, and  that  into  a  doxology. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  interest 
of  this  passage  in  the  history  of  religion.  We 
seem  to  see  here  Christian  theology  in  the 
making.  We  touch  it,  and  are  enabled  to 
observe  it,  at  the  point  of  transition  between 
living  experience  and  formulated  doctrine,  be- 
tween the  individual  and  diversified  experience 
of  men  in  contact  with  Jesus  and  the  collected 
and  connected  formulse  of  a  creed.  The  Christian 
faith,  when  it  came  to  be  finally  defined,  pro- 
claimed a  triune  God — Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit — and  Christian  thinkers  exhausted  the 
resources  of  thought  and  language  in  the  attempt 
to  define  their  mutual  relation.  In  this  passage, 
though  we  are  far  from  having  reached  that  stage, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  Apostle  traces  the  grace 


CHAPTEE  I.   4-6  23 

and  peace  which  he  invokes  to  a  threefold  source, 
and  so  describes  that  source  as  to  suggest  rather 
than  to  define  the  Father,  the  Spirit,  and  the 
Son.  The  order  in  which  these  are  arranged  is, 
of  course,  remarkable,  and  probably  unique ;  and 
even  more  remarkable  is  the  way  in  which  the 
Spirit  is  referred  to.  In  both  these  points  we  see 
tokens  of  Christian  thought  at  its  earliest  stage. 
But  what  is  most  important  is  to  observe  that 
we  have  before  us  not  formulated  dogma,  but 
elementary  reflection  on  experience.  John  and 
his  fellow-believers  knew  that  grace  and  peace 
had  come  to  them  from  God,  that  grace  and 
peace  had  come  to  them  through  the  ministry 
of  the  Spirit,  and  also  that  grace  and  peace  had 
come  to  them  by  Jesus  Christ ;  and  in  the  prayer 
that  the  same  benediction  may  be  continued  and 
extended  the  Apostle  appeals  to  the  same  three- 
fold source  from  which  he  had  known  it  to  reach 
himself.  We  have,  then,  as  the  first  element  in 
the  apostolic  consciousness,  experience — expe- 
rience of  "grace  and  truth  coming  through 
Jesus  Christ."  This  gives  him  his  material. 
But  we  see  also  what  it  is  that  gives  him  the 
form  in  which  his  experience  is  described.  And 
in  this  passage,  as  largely  throughout  the  book, 
it  is  the  language  and  the  symbolism  of  the  Old 
Testament.  In  the  striking  phrase,  *'  Him  which 
is  and  which  was  and  which  is  to  come  "  (still 


24        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

more  striking  in  the  original  than  it  can  be  made 
in  a  translation),  there  is  a  direct  allusion  to  the 
great  passage  in  Exodus  where  Jehovah  reveals 
himself  to  Moses  as  the  "  I  am,"  the  self-existent 
and  eternal  one.  In  the  description  of  the  "  seven 
spirits  before  the  throne  "  the  Apostle  is  drawing 
on  the  language  of  later  Judaism,  according  to 
which  the  chiefs  of  the  angelic  bands  of  spirits 
were  seven  in  number.  And  when  he  describes 
Jesus  as  ''the  faithful  witness,  the  firstborn  of 
the  dead,  and  the  ruler  of  the  kings  of  the 
earth,"  he  is  paraphrasing  the  language  of  the 
Psalms  so  as  to  make  it  express  what  had 
come  under  his  own  observation.  But  it  is 
Jesus  whom  he  sets  there,  alongside  of  God, 
as  part  of  the  threefold  source  of  grace  and 
peace. 

This  fact  deserves  our  close  attention,  both  in 
its  extraordinary  character  and  in  the  explana- 
tion which  it  suggests.  It  is,  indeed,  very 
extraordinary  that  we  should  find  Jesus  set 
where  He  is  set  here;  and  the  marvel  has  only 
become  the  greater  as  through  investigation  and 
criticism  the  situation  has  been  made  more  clear. 
To  our  fathers  it  seemed  only  natural  that  those 
who  had  hailed  in  Jesus  the  long-expected  Mes- 
siah should  forthwith  invest  Him  with  Divine 
rank  and  honour.  To  them  the  ancient  pro- 
phecies and  hopes  concerning  the  Messiah  seemed 


CHAPTEK  I.   4-6  25 

to  involve  nothing  less.  Had  He  not,  for  example, 
been  described  by  Isaiah  as  "  the  Mighty  God  the 
Everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace  "  ?  Had 
not  His  suffering  and  subsequent  exaltation  been 
foretold  with  singular  minuteness  in  the  famous 
fifty-third  chapter  of  the  same  book?  Looking 
back  on  these  things  in  the  light  shed  on  them 
by  the  actual  manifestation  and  history  of  Jesus, 
they  do  seem  to  us  to  anticipate  with  strange 
accuracy  both  the  experience  through  which  He 
passed  and  the  glory  He  has  received,  so  that  it  is 
difficult  to  realise  that  the  Jews  were  not  pre- 
pared to  hail  Him  as  God  in  man,  if  they  were 
able  to  recognise  Him  at  all.  And  yet  it  must 
be  remembered  that  Jesus  in  His  historical 
manifestation  was  both  less  and  more  than 
the  Messiah  looked  for  by  His  contemporaries. 
According  to  Jewish  understanding  of  these  pro- 
phecies, even  of  the  greatest  of  them,  they  could 
be,  and  were  to  be,  fulfilled  in  the  person  of  a 
human  sovereign,  an  ideal  king  over  an  Israel 
restored  to  independence  and  to  power.  And  in 
the  generations  following  the  close  of  prophecy 
this  hope  waned  and  revived  only  to  wane  again, 
so  that  there  were  periods  in  Jewish  history 
before  Christ  when  the  religious  hope  of  the 
future  hardly  included  the  figure  of  Messiah  at 
all.  And  as  to  His  coming  to  glory  through 
suffering,  that  prophecy  had  been  so  little  under- 


26        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

stood,  or  had  made  so  little  impression,  that  when 
Jesus  spoke  of  the  Cross  that  awaited  Him,  one 
of  the  disciples  who  knew  him  best  "  took  Him 
and  began  to  rebuke  Him."  Whatever  it  was 
that  led  the  Church  of  the  first  century  to  set 
Christ  where  it  did,  in  the  glory  of  the  Father,  it 
was  not  merely  the  fact  that  they  believed  Him 
to  be  the  Messiah.  It  is  indeed  a  great  miracle 
with  which  we  are  confronted.  Just  as  Jesus 
transformed  the  Cross,  which  was  religiously  as 
well  as  politically  a  symbol  of  shame,  into  a 
throne  of  glory,  so  He  transfigured  the  idea  of 
the  Messiah  from  that  of  an  earthly  deliverer 
and  potentate  into  that  of  God  in  man.  And 
the  less  predisposition  there  was  in  the  minds 
of  His  contemporaries  to  such  a  transfigura- 
tion the  greater  was  the  marvel  which  He 
wrought. 

Neither  shall  we  see  it  in  its  true  light  unless 
we  bear  in  mind  another  fact  which  made  the 
transfiguration  of  the  Messianic  idea  all  the 
more  difficult  to  effect,  namely,  that  these 
Jews  were  before  all  else  in  their  religion 
monotheists.  The  thing  from  which  they  shrank 
with  deepest  horror  was  offering  to  any  one 
but  Jehovah  the  honour  which  was  due  to 
Him  alone.  It  was  the  lesson  which  had  been 
burnt  into  their  consciousness  by  the  fires  of 
suffering,  and  annealed  by  the  chill  of  exile,  one 


CHAPTER  I.  4-6  27 

which  they  never  afterwards  forgot  and  never 
questioned.  From  the  time  of  the  return  from 
Babylon  they  were  rigid  monotheists,  both  in 
theory  and  in  practice ;  and  yet  those  who  beheved 
in  Jesus  set  Him  where  they  did.  The  fact  is 
nowhere  more  conspicuous  than  in  the  Book  of 
Eevelation.  Although  the  writer  is  plainly  a 
Jew  of  Jews,  his  mind  saturated  with  Hebrew 
literature  and  Hebrew  modes  of  thought,  a  true 
son  of  the  race  with  which  monotheism  had 
become  a  passion,  and  the  ascription  of  Divine 
honour  to  any  other  than  the  supreme  God  a 
horror  and  a  blasphemy,  he  nevertheless  sets 
Jesus,  the  man  whom  he  had  known  in  the  flesh, 
side  by  side  with  God.  Indications  are  not 
wanting  of  the  writer's  familiarity  with  the 
historical  Jesus.  He  frequently  makes  use  of  the 
name  which  specially  marks  His  human  nature ; 
he  refers  to  His  death  at  Jerusalem,  to  His  resur- 
rection, and  to  His  exaltation  to  the  Father's 
throne.  He  alludes  to  the  twelve  Apostles,  and 
echoes  more  than  one  of  the  recorded  sayings  of 
Jesus.  But  for  him  the  Jesus  whom  he  had  known 
in  the  flesh  is  lost  in  the  glory  of  the  exalted  Lord. 
He  is  *'the  Lord  of  lords  and  King  of  kings." 
His  existence  reaches  back  before  the  beginning 
of  things  created.  Himself  the  principle  from 
which  all  creation  issues.  He  is  the  absolutely 
Living  One,  by  whom  it  can  be  said,  as  God  alone 


28        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

can  say,  "  I  am  the  first  and  the  last."  To  Him, 
therefore,  is  committed  the  unfolding  of  the  book 
of  human  destiny,  the  waging  of  the  final  conflict 
with  evil,  the  holding  of  the  Divine  assize.  All 
these  functions  which  men  had  been  taught  to 
recognise  as  absolute  prerogatives  of  the  Divine, 
John  lays  without  explanation  upon  Christ.  And 
not  these  only  which  belong  to  the  future,  but 
also  those  attributes  which  had  been  displayed  in 
earlier  revelation  as  the  peculiar  property  of  the 
Most  High  are  similarly  assigned  to  Jesus  Christ. 
In  the  vision  of  the  Son  of  Man  which  imme- 
diately follows  this  passage,  the  Apostle  takes  one 
after  another  of  those  phrases  which  had  been 
consecrated  from  old  times  to  the  description  of 
the  Most  High  God,  those  attributes  in  which  by 
prophet  and  psalmist  He  had  been  apparelled, 
and  applies  them  to  Christ  as  though  they  were 
recognised  to  be  His  by  right.  The  description  of 
the  "  Ancient  of  Days  "  in  Daniel  is  transferred  to 
Him.  He  holds  the  keys  of  Hades  and  of  Death. 
He  searches  the  hearts  of  men.  He  shares  in  the 
Divine  honour  paid  to  God :  even  angels  join  in 
worshipping  "  God  and  the  Lamb."  * 

We  cannot  but  inquire  with  wonder  to  what 

cause  or  causes  this  central  phenomenon  of  the 

Christian  consciousness  is  to  be  traced.     Other 

causes,  and  among  them  prophecy  in  particular, 

'•-  See  Century  Bible,  Introduction,  p.  72. 


CHAPTEK  I.  4-6  29 

may  have  contributed ;  but  the  cause  which  was 
both  primary  and  efficient  was  the  personality  of 
Jesus,  the  total  impression  which  He  made  on 
those  who  knew  Him  best,  and  their  conviction 
that  He  had  loosed  them  from  their  sins  and 
made  them  kings  and  priests  to  God. 

On  the  one  hand  there  was  the  total  impression 
made  by  Jesus,  His  personality  and  His  history. 
The  Apostle,  in  the  description  which  he  here 
gives,  at  least  suggests  the  elements  which  went 
to  make  up  that  impression.  In  the  phrase 
*'  faithful  witness  "  there  is  an  echo  of  His  words 
recorded  in  the  Gospel :  '*  I  bear  witness  to  the 
truth,"  an  allusion  to  the  impression  Jesus  had 
made  as  a  teacher,  to  the  self-luminous  revelation 
of  which  He  was  the  bearer  to  the  world.  "First- 
born from  the  dead"  testifies  to  the  central  fact 
of  the  disciples'  knowledge  concerning  Him,  that 
though  He  had  been  dead,  yet  He  was  living,  and 
so  to  the  revolution  in  their  thinking  which  had 
been  wrought  by  His  resurrection.  **  Prince  of 
the  kings  of  the  earth,"  a  phrase  moulded  on  the 
Messianic  language  of  the  eighty-ninth  Psalm, 
attests  the  impression  Jesus  had  made  of  universal 
dignity  and  authority,  the  conviction  He  had' 
wrought  in  the  minds  of  His  disciples  as  to  the 
supremacy  of  that  spiritual  kingdom  of  which  He 
was  King.  These  are  the  elements  in  His  per- 
sonality and  His  history  here  indicated  by  John 


30        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

which  combined  to  produce  such  an  impression 
that  the  men  who  beHeved  in  Him  could  do 
nothing  else  than  equate  Him  with  God. 

But  there  was  another  line  along  which  they 
were  led  to  the  same  conclusion,  and  that  was 
their  experience  of  what  Jesus  could  do,  and  had 
done,  for  and  in  those  who  believed.     And  as  the 
thought  of  this  rises  in  the  Apostle's  mind  he 
passes  over  from  benediction   invoked  upon  his 
readers  to  doxology  addressed  to  Christ.     Here  is 
what   Christ  had   done  for  him  and  for  all  his 
brethren  :  *'  To  him  that  loveth  us,  and  loosed  us 
from  our  sins  by  his  blood."      So  the  true  text 
reads.     Some  copyist,  who  was  thinking  more  of 
grammar  than  of  Christian  experience,  thought  it 
must  be  a  mistake,  and  altered  it  to  "loved."    Or 
perhaps  John  himself  first  wrote  "loved"  and 
then  bethought  him  :  "  Why  should  I  say  '  loved  ' 
when  He  loves  us  still?  "     At  any  rate,  there  is 
conviction  of  the  early  Church :  the  Jesus  whom 
they  had  known  not  only  loved  them  while  He 
was  their  companion  on  the  earth,  but  loves  them 
still,  shares  therefore  in  that  further  quality  of  the 
Godhead  of  which  John  writes  elsewhere :  "  God 
is  Love,"  and  gives  to  that  quality  just  what  each 
man  requires  to    find    in  it,  personal   direction 
towards  himself.     Thus  Jesus  is  the  link  between 
the  universal  God  and  the  individual  soul.     What 
without  Him  would  be  incredible,  not  only  be- 


CHAPTEE  I.   4-6  31 

comes  credible  but  is  actually  realised  through 
Hira.  God  loves  me :  I  know  it  by  referring 
myself  to  the  historical  Jesus  :  and  when  that  is 
so,  He  has  for  me  the  value  of  God. 

But  the  experience  mediated  by  Jesus  does  not 
stop  here.  He  *'  hath  loosed  us  from  our  sins," 
says  John.  Or,  it  may  have  been  **  washed  us 
from  our  sins  "  that  he  wrote.  In  either  case 
think  what  it  means  that  John  and  those  in 
whose  name  he  wrote  had  found  this  to  be  so, 
that  a  guilty  past  was  no  longer  a  barrier 
between  them  and  God,  that  they  could  stand 
conscience-clear  in  the  presence  of  the  All-Holj^ 
One,  that  they  were  no  longer  the  slaves  of  sin 
and  sinful  habit,  but  men  of  moral  stamina,  able 
to  resist  and  overcome  temptation.  And  this 
they  traced  to  Jesus,  not  to  any  ritual  they  had 
performed,  not  to  any  sacrifice  they  had  offered, 
not  to  any  moral  revolution  engineered  by  them- 
selves, but  to  what  He  had  done  for  them  in 
dying,  and  in  them  as  living  again.  Along  with 
this  their  indubitable  experience  of  forgiveness 
of,  and  deliverance  from,  sin,  we  must  take  the 
universal  conviction  of  their  time,  expressed  by 
certain  of  the  Pharisees  in  our  Lord's  lifetime : 
"  Who  can  forgive  sins  save  God  only  ?  "  in  order 
to  see  the  full  bearing  of  the  fact  that  these 
Christians  of  the  first  generation  knew,  felt,  and 
declared  that  it  was  through  Jesus  that  this  had 


32        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

happened  to  them,  that  they  had  been  loosed 
from  their  sins. 

But  there  is  still  a  further  point  in  their 
experience  which  goes  to  explain  why  they  put 
Jesus  where  they  did.  They  found  themselves 
in  a  new  relation  to  the  world,  and  to  one 
another  as  well  as  to  God.  They  felt  that  they 
were  collectively  a  kingdom,  a  society  distinct 
from  the  surrounding  world,  exalted  above  it, 
exercising  royal  powers  over  life.  They  were 
conscious  of  living  on  a  higher  plane,  in  another 
mode  of  existence  penetrated  by  the  powers  of 
the  world  to  come.  And  they  formed  also  a 
priesthood.  Formerly  they  had  looked  up  to 
other  men  as  the  appointed  and  necessary 
mediators  of  God's  mercy  and  God's  truth.  Now 
they  needed  such  no  longer.  They  had  stepped 
up  into  their  place,  conscious  of  having  for  them- 
selves immediate  access  to  God,  and  of  offering 
unto  Him  a  continuous  "  spiritual  service,"  the 
daily  sacrifice  of  heart  and  mind  and  body,  which 
made  any  other  sacrifice  as  unnecessary  as  any 
other  priesthood.  And  this  glorious  privilege, 
this  deliverance  from  the  yoke  of  human  priest- 
hood and  priestcraft,  this  royal  relation  to  the 
world  of  sense,  they  traced  to  Jesus.  It  was  He 
that  had  made  them  *'a  kingdom  and  priests  to 
God." 

It  was  this  complex  and  yet  harmonious  im- 


CHAPTEE  I.  4-6  33 

pression  which  Jesus  had  made  upon  His 
disciples  which  explains  as  nothing  else  can 
their  frank  and  simple  recognition  of  Him  as 
Divine.  He  had  "  made  all  things  new  " — them- 
selves, their  relation  to  the  world,  their  relation 
to  God.  Alike  in  its  measure  and  in  its  character 
the  work  which  He  had  wrought  in  them  and  for 
them  was  the  work  of  God.  To  Him,  therefore, 
"  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever." 

These  are  the  eternal  realities  in  the  presence 
and  consciousness  of  which  St.  John  proceeds  to 
write  his  Apocalypse  ;  and  they  are  the  same 
spiritual  realities  in  the  presence  of  which  we 
are  to  study  it,  and  also  to  live  our  lives  and 
write  our  own  histories.  First,  God :  God  as 
Universal  Being,  the  Absolute  and  All-mighty ; 
God  as  Universal  Energy,  and  specially  energy 
towards  righteousness ;  but  also  God  in  history, 
God  in  Christ  moving  in  the  affairs  of  men, 
making  Himself  known  as  Love;  and  then, 
human  experience  of  God  as  mediated  through 
Christ — experience  of  His  mercy.  His  forgiveness, 
and  His  redemption.  And  as  the  conviction  of 
these  things  came  to  these  early  Christians,  so  it 
comes  to  us,  through  Jesus,  the  faithful  witness, 
the  firstborn  from  the  dead. 


THE  VISION  OF  THE   SON  OF  MAN 

Eev.  i.  9-20 

/  JoJin,  your  brother  and  partaker  with  you  in  the 
tribulation  and  Tiingdom  and  patience  which  are  in  Jesus, 
was  in  the  isle  that  is  called  Patmos,  for  the  word  of  God 
and  the  testimony  of  Jesus.  I  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the 
Lord's  day,  and  I  heard  behind  me  a  great  voice,  as  of  a 
trumpet  saying,  What  thou  seest,  ivritc  in  a  book,  and  send 
it  to  the  seven  churches  ;  unto  Ephesus,  and  unto  Smyrna, 
and  unto  Pergamitm,  and  unto  Thyatira,  and  unto  Sardis, 
and  unto  Philadelphia,  and  unto  Laodicea.  And  I  turned 
to  see  the  voice  which  spake  with  me.  And  having  turned 
I  saw  seven  golden  candlesticks  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
candlesticks  one  Uke  unto  a  son  of  man,  clothed  with  a 
garment  down  to  the  foot,  and  girt  about  at  the  breasts 
with  a  golden  girdle.  And  his  head  and  his  hair  ivere 
white  as  white  wool,  white  as  snow  ;  and  his  eyes  ivere  as  a 
flame  of  fire  ;  and  his  feet  Uke  unto  burnished  brass,  as  if 
it  had  been  refined  in  a  furnace  ;  and  his  voice  as  the  voice 
of  many  ivaters.  And  he  had  in  his  right  hand  seven  stars  : 
and  out  of  his  mouth  proceeded  a  sharp  two-edged  sivord  : 
and  his  countenance  was  as  the  sun  shineth  in  his  strength. 
And  when  I  saw  him,  I  fell  at  his  feet  as  one  dead.  And 
he  laid  his  right  hand  upon  me,  saying,  Fear  not)  I  am 
the  first  and  the  last,  and  the  Living  one ;  and  I  luas  dead, 
and  behold,  I  am  alive  for  evermore,  and  I  have  the  keys 
of  death  and  of  Hades.  Write  therefore  the  things  which 
thou  sawest,   and  the   things  tvhich  are^  and  the  things 

34 


CHAPTEK  I.  9-20  35 

which  shall  come  to  pass  hereafter;  the  mystery  of  the 
seven  stars  which  thou  sawest  in  my  right  hand,  and  the 
seven  golden  candlesticks.  The  seven  stars  are  the  angels  of 
the  seuen  churches;  and  the  seven  candlesticks  are  seven 
churches  {B.V.). 

There  are  few  portions  of  the  earth's  surface 
more  rich  in  historical  and  reHgious  interest  than 
that  which  St.  John  refers  to  by  the  name  of 
"  Asia."  By  that  he  means,  of  course,  not  the 
great  continent  to  which  we  have  extended  the 
name,  nor  yet  what  is  to-day  known  as  Asia 
Minor,  but  the  western  end  of  that  great  peninsula, 
where  the  central  plateau  slopes  and  breaks  down 
to  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  It  was  to  this  that 
the  Eomans  gave  the  name  of  "  Asia  "  when  they 
made  it  one  of  the  provinces  of  their  Empire,  a 
name  which  has  gradually  extended  until  now  it 
covers  the  whole  continent  to  the  far  east  of 
Siberia.  For  many  centuries,  down  to  the 
occupation  of  the  country  by  the  Turks,  which  is 
as  the  pouring  of  the  sands  of  the  desert  on  a 
fertile  land,  this  Asia  had  fulfilled  the  destiny 
marked  out  for  her  by  Nature  as  the  most  con- 
venient bridge  between  East  and  West.  Trade 
rolled  down  its  valleys  in  an  opulent  stream,  to 
find  the  shipping  of  Greece  and  Eome  awaiting 
it  in  the  safe  harbours  of  Smyrna  and  Ephesus  ; 
the  valued  products  of  two  continents  found  their 
place  of  meeting  and  exchange  along  its  coasts, 


36        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

and,  as  wealth  has  never  grown  so  fast  as  through 
the  handHng  of  this  kind  of  traffic,  Asia  was  for 
long  one  of  the  richest  portions  of  the  ancient 
world,  studded  with  large  and  prosperous  cities, 
the  homes  of  luxury  and  comfort.  It  is  not  with- 
out reason  that  to  this  day  Croesus,  one  of  its 
kings,  and  Pactolus,  one  of  its  rivers,  are  pro- 
verbial for  boundless  wealth  and  prosperity. 

In  this  outwardly  favoured  land  the  seed  of  the 
Gospel  had  been  early  sown,  had  taken  root,  and 
sprung  up  in  Christian  communities  which  were 
found  in  most  of  the  great  cities,  in  Smyrna,  Ephe- 
sus,Pergamum,  andTroas,inLaodicea,  Hierapolis, 
Thyatira,  and  Sardis,  in  Philadelphia  and  Colossae. 
And  among  the  men  to  whom  these  communities 
of  behevers  in  Christ  looked  up  with  reverence  as 
having  seen,  heard,  and  known  the  Master  in  the 
days  of  His  flesh,  was  this  John,  whether  he  were 
John  the  Elder,  or,  as  remains  more  probable,  John 
the  Apostle,  the  son  of  Zebedee.  Persecution 
had  broken  out  against  these  Christians — perse- 
cution the  cause  and  character  of  which  we  shall 
have  opportunity  to  examine  later.  They  had 
suffered  even  unto  blood,  and  many  who  had 
escaped  the  sword  were  banished,  at  least  for  a 
time,  among  them  this  John.  Banishment,  and 
especially  to  the  mines,  was  a  favourite  measure 
with  tyrannical  governors  of  the  period.  Tacitus 
writing  of  this  period  says  :  *'  The  sea  was  thickly 


CHAPTEB  I.  9-20  37 

strewn  with  exiles,  the  crags  were  stained  with 
the  blood  of  victims."  The  scene  of  John's 
banishment  was  Patmos,  an  island  some  thirty 
miles  round,  which  lies  off  the  coast  about  fifteen 
miles  from  Ephesus.  Thither  the  exiles  were 
sent  to  work  in  the  mines  or  marble  quarries. 
And  there  John  had  his  vision  of  the  Son  of 
Man. 

There  is  something  peculiarly  touching  in  the 
manner  in  which  he  introduces  the  account  of 
what  he  had  seen.  Even  this  great  privilege  had 
not  altered  the  tender  and  brotherly  relation  in 
which  he  stood  to  those  whom  he  addressed  :  "I 
John,  who  also  am  your  brother,"  not  as  lording 
it  over  God's  heritage,  though  he  had  seen  Christ, 
and  received  authority  from  Him  to  speak.  He 
claims  no  superiority  of  age  or  privilege — **  your 
brother,  and  fellow-partaker,"  in  what?  In 
tribulation?  Yes,  and  more:  in  the  tribulation 
and  the  kingdom — that  is,  in  the  twofold  and  in- 
divisible experience  of  the  tribulation  which 
Christ  said  they  should  have  *'  in  the  world," 
and  the  "kingdom"  which  He  also  said  His 
Father  would  give  unto  them,  the  kingdom  which 
was  not  of  this  world.  *'  In  the  tribulation  and 
kingdom"  they  were  fellow-partakers,  because 
they  were  partakers  also  in  the  patience  by  which 
Christ  had  said  that  they  would  win  their  souls. 
And  all  three,  the  tribulation  and  the  kingdom 


38        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

and  the  patience,  were  held  together  in  one 
harmonious  whole  "  in  Jesus."  Christ  was  the 
sphere  in  which  they  lived  and  moved  and  had 
their  being.  Tribulation  did  not  undermine  their 
patience ;  the  kingdom  did  not  make  it  un- 
necessary. This  was  life,  and  it  was  a  life  of 
brotherhood,  of  inner  peace  and  of  assured 
triumph  for  the  end.  This  was  the  temper  and 
this  the  experience  of  the  man  who  saw  the 
Vision. 

He  had  left  Patmos  ere  he  wrote  this  account 
of  it ;  at  least,  that  is  the  more  probable  explana- 
tion of  his  words.  But  the  whole  thing  is  still 
vivid  to  his  memory.  It  was  the  Lord's  day, 
honoured  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  the 
Lord,  the  first  day  of  the  week,  which  those 
Christians  who  had  seen  Jesus,  treated  with 
equal  respect,  and  hailed  with  even  greater 
gladness  than  the  seventh  day,  the  Sabbath  of 
their  fathers.  It  was  not  likely  to  be  a  holiday 
in  the  mines.  The  Eomans  had  small  respect  for 
such  superstitions.  But  it  was  a  holy  day  in  the 
Apostle's  heart.  Was  it  not  the  Lord's  day,  the 
day  of  the  week  when  he  had  run  with  Peter  to 
the  tomb  where  they  had  seen  their  Master  laid, 
to  find  it  open  and  empty  ? — the  day  when  He  had 
made  Himself  known  to  them  as  alive  from  the 
dead  ? — their  Eedeemer  that  dieth  no  more,  and  at 
once  all  their  shattered  hopes  were  revived  and 


CHAPTEK  I.  9-20  39 

restored,  for  they  beheld  in  Him  a  Prince  and 
a  Saviour,  one  who  had  indeed  loosed  them  from 
their  sins  and  made  them  as  kings  and  priests 
unto  God.  All  these  experiences  had  swept  back 
through  John's  memory  as  he  rose  that  Lord's  day, 
and  flooded  all  his  soul  with  a  sense  of  peace  and 
the  presence  of  God.  In  rapt  and  joyous  contem- 
plation of  all  that  the  day  recalled,  he  passed  into 
a  trance  of  ecstatic  adoration.  He  was  "in  the 
Spirit,"  the  life  of  sense  suspended,  heaven  open 
before  the  eye  of  faith.  Like  St.  Paul,  he  might 
have  said :  "Whether  in  the  bodj^  or  out  of  the 
body  I  cannot  tell ;  God  knoweth  ;  "  but  this  he 
knew,  that  he  saw  and  heard  the  Lord,  the  living 
and  exalted  Christ.  That  is  the  central  and  un- 
impeachable fact  of  John's  experience. 

In  the  description  of  his  vision  which  follows 
it  is  interesting  and  not  unimportant  to  observe 
what  features  are  absolutely  new,  and  what  had 
already  found  place  in  inspired  descriptions  of  the 
vision  of  God  or  of  the  expected  Messiah,  and  so 
might  be  already  in  John's  mind.  For  as  a  man's 
waking  thoughts  do  often  provide  part  at  least 
of  the  detail  and  colouring  of  his  dreams,  so  it 
may  have  been  with  this  vision.  John's  waking 
thoughts  of  Christ  may  thus  have  contributed 
features  either  to  what  he  saw  or  to  the  subse- 
quent description  of  the  vision.  And  if  we  only 
take  a  good  reference  Bible,  and  turn  up  the 


40        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

passages  referred  to  in  the  margin  here,  it  is  quickly 
evident  how  many  and  how  close  are  the  parallels 
with  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament.  When 
John  "  heard  behind  him  a  great  voice  as  of  a 
trumpet,"  it  was  as  when  Ezekiel  says :  "  Then 
the  Spirit  took  me  up,  and  I  heard  behind  me  a 
voice  of  a  great  rushing."  When  he  saw  One 
whose  "head  and  his  hair  were  white  as  white 
wool,  white  as  snow,"  he  saw  a  figure  identical 
in  appearance  with  that  which  had  been  seen  by 
Daniel,  when  "  the  Ancient  of  Days  did  sit, 
whose  raiment  was  white  as  snow,  and  the 
hairs  of  his  head  like  pure  wool."  The  eyes 
"  as  a  flame  of  fire,"  the  feet  "  like  burnished 
brass,"  the  voice  "  like  the  voice  of  many  waters," 
all  find  their  parallels  in  the  visions  of  Messiah 
recorded  by  older  prophets.  And  even  the  two- 
edged  sword  proceeding  out  of  the  mouth  is  but  a 
symbolic  picture  of  the  Word  of  God,  "sharper 
than  any  two-edged  sword,"  with  w^hich  according 
to  Jewish  expectation  the  Messiah  was  to  destroy 
the  heathen.  These  and  other  phrases  in  the 
description,  in  which  we  seem  to  hear  echoes  of 
Old  Testament  prophecies  regarding  the  Christ, 
only  serve  when  recognised  to  throw  into  higher 
relief  the  points  in  which  the  vision  stands  in 
startling  contrast  with  all  that  had  been  thought 
or  seen  before.  And  these  are  two.  First,  the 
seven  candlesticks  in  the    midst  of  which  the 


CHAPTEE  I.  9-20  41 

Lord  is  seen,  and  second,  the  words  in  which  He 
describes  Himself. 

As  to  the  second  of  these  features,  the  language 
in  which  the  Lord  describes  Himself :  "  Fear 
not " — the  words  which  He  had  used  on  more 
than  one  well-remembered  occasion  in  His 
earthly  life — are  followed  by  others  which  no 
mere  man  could  use :  "I  am  the  first  and  the 
last  and  the  living  one  " — applying  to  Himself 
the  very  phrase  which  in  the  eighth  verse  comes 
from  the  lips  of  God:  "I  am  the  Alpha  and  the 
Omega,  saith  the  Lord,  the  Almighty."  And  in 
order  that  there  may  be  no  mistake  as  to  the 
claim  here  made  by  the  risen  Christ,  He  goes  on 
to  say :  "  I  have  the  keys  of  death  and  of  Hades." 
The  full  significance  of  these  last  words  is  only 
realised  if  we  recall  the  fact  that  it  was  part  of 
the  well-known  teaching  of  the  Jewish  doctors, 
that  "  the  keys  of  four  things  are  in  the  hands  of 
God  alone,"  and  these  things  were  Life  and  the 
Grave,  Food  and  Kain.  When  John  heard  Jesus 
saying:  ''I  have  the  keys  of  death  and  Hades," 
he  heard  Him  using  words  which,  according  to  all 
his  early  training  and  thinking,  were  proper  to 
God  alone.  We  have  here,  therefore,  another 
and  a  striking  illustration  of  the  fact  that  in  spite 
of  all  his  inbred  monotheism,  in  defiance  of  all 
his  traditional  theology,  John  and  those  for 
whom  he  speaks   and  writes  had  given  to  the 


42        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

Jesus  of  history  a  place  not  second  even  to  that 
of  God.  So  great,  so  overwhelming  was  the 
impression  He  had  made  on  them  by  His 
personality  in  life,  and  by  His  victory  over 
death. 

But  the  central  thing  in  the  vision  is  this 
figure  of  the  Son  of  Man,  such  as  John  had  seen 
Him  once  upon  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration 
when  "  His  face  did  shine  as  the  sun,"  like  to 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  yet  with  a  Divine  unlike- 
ness.  "  He  is  seen  arrayed  not,  as  in  the  days  of 
His  ministry,  in  the  short  seamless  tunic  and  the 
flowing  cloak  which  formed  the  common  dress  of 
His  time,  but  in  the  long  robe  reaching  to  the 
feet,  that  had  been  the  special  garment  of  the 
High  Priest."  He  wears  the  visible  emblem  of 
His  atoning  office  for  mankind.  And  He  is 
girded  with  a  golden  girdle,  *'not  as  of  one  who 
toils  and  runs,  fastened  round  the  waist,  but 
around  the  heart  as  of  one  who  has  entered  into 
the  repose  of  sovereignty."  He  wears  the  visible 
emblem  of  His  royal  rule  over  men.  He  stands 
there  as  Priest  and  King,  and  in  His  hand  He 
holds  the  seven  stars,  while  round  about  Him  are 
set  the  seven  golden  lamp-stands  or  candlesticks. 

Here  we  meet  a  feature  in  the  vision  to  which 
no  parallel  can  be  found.  The  earlier  literature, 
both  of  the  prophets  and  the  extra-canonical 
books,  has  been  searched   in  vain  for  anything 


CHAPTER  I.  9-20  43 

that  would  throw  light  on  these  symbols.  They 
belong  wholly  to  this  vision.  And  the  explana- 
tion of  them  is  that  given  in  the  twentieth  verse  : 
"  The  seven  stars  are  the  angels  of  the  seven 
churches :  and  the  seven  candlesticks  are  seven 
churches."  This  of  course  raises  the  question, 
What  are  we  to  understand  by  "  the  angels  of  the 
churches  "  ?  and  that  is  by  no  means  easy  to 
answer.  On  the  one  hand,  it  has  been  thought 
by  many  that  "  angel"  is  the  name  for  a  repre- 
sentative man,  or  body  of  men,  the  rulers,  elders, 
or  bishop  of  each  particular  congregation.  Against 
this  have  to  be  set  the  facts  that  the  word  "  angel " 
is  never  used  in  the  New  Testament  of  a  human 
being,  except  in  two  cases,  where  it  means  simply 
"messenger"  :  that  it  is  not  certain  that  at  the 
time  when  these  letters  were  written  the  develop- 
ment of  Church  government  in  Asia  Minor  had 
reached  the  point  where  one  individual  stood  out 
at  the  head  of  the  community  as  its  representative 
and  ruler ;  and  that  when  we  come  to  consider 
the  letters  themselves  we  shall  find  that  the 
"angel"  to  whom  each  letter  is  addressed  is 
identified  with  his  Church  as  partaker  of  its 
character  and  also  of  its  destiny  to  a  degree  which 
could  not  be  predicated  of  any  human  representa- 
tive. In  fact,  so  far  as  the  contents  of  the  letters 
are  concerned,  each  one  of  them  might  as  well  be 
directed  to  the  particular  Church  itself  as  to  "  the 


44        THE  BOOK  OF  EEYELATION 

angel"  of  the  Church.  The  meaning  of  the 
address  seems  rather  to  be  found  in  connection 
with  the  idea  of  *'  guardian  angels,"  of  angels  as 
representatives  in  heaven  of  individuals  and  com- 
munities on  earth.  There  is  authority  for  the 
idea  in  our  Lord's  words  regarding  the  children ; 
that  *'  their  angels  do  behold  the  face  of  my 
Father."  On  this  suggestion  the  angel  of  each 
Church  would  be  its  heavenly  counterpart  and 
representative,  the  composite  personality  of  the 
Church  as  seen  by  God.  In  the  vision  each  of 
these  angels  is  symboKsed  by  a  star.  These  stars, 
the  heavenly  symbols  of  the  Churches,  are  held  in 
the  hand  of  the  risen  Lord,  and  He  moves  among 
the  candlesticks  which  represent  the  Churches 
themselves. 

That  was  what  John  saw  in  Patmos  on  the 
Lord's  day.  Its  significance  becomes  clear  as 
soon  as  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  vouchsafed 
is  understood.  These  Christian  communities, 
which  for  some  reason  not  discoverable  by  us 
were  selected  out  from  the  Churches  of  Asia, 
were,  like  their  neighbours,  in  most  imminent 
danger.  And  the  danger  was  of  more  kinds 
than  one.  They  were  threatened  from  without 
with  a  renewal  of  the  persecution  they  had 
already  undergone,  but  renewal  in  a  fiercer  and 
more  organised  form.  As  we  shall  see  later, 
the  State  was  no  longer  merely  the  agent  giving 


CHAPTEK  I.  9-20  45 

effect  to  the  hostility  of  the  Jews  or  heathen  to 
whose   rehgious   prejudices   the  presence   of  the 
Christians  was  offensive.     The  Eoman  State  had 
itself  set  up  a  religion  which  was  utterly  abhorrent 
to    all    Christian    sentiment    and    belief.      The 
deification  of  the  reigning  Emperor,  mad  as  it 
seems  to  us,  had  become  part  of  the  Provincial 
administration,  and  especially   in  the  Province 
of  Asia  the  worship  of  the  Boman  Emperor  as 
God  had  been   taken  up  by  the  populace  with 
enthusiasm,    and    was    being    enforced    by   the 
Government  as  the  duty  of  every  loyal  subject. 
Times  of  cruel  searching  and  sifting  were  evidently 
at  hand,  when  the  genuineness  of  every  Christian's 
loyalty  to  the  one  and  only  God  would  be  tested 
as  by  fire.    And  the  Churches  were  but  ill  pre- 
pared for  such  a  test.     For  there  was  danger  to 
their    vitaHty    from    within.      They    had    been 
invaded  in  various  degrees  by  laxity  and  coldness, 
by  false  doctrine  and  the  example  of  base  sur- 
render to  heathen  standards,  by  divisions  and 
party  spirit;   and   every  true  disciple  of  Jesus 
must  have  been  looking  forward  to  the  future 
with  foreboding,  if  not  with  dismay.     To  John, 
whose  relations  with  these  Churches  gave  him 
both  influence  and  responsibility,  there  came  by 
means  of    this    vision  the  command    to    write 
what  should  brace  the  faith  and  steel  the  courage 
of  these  communities  to  face  the  coming  trial, 


46        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

and  the  vision  itself  was  intended  and  calculated 
in  the  first  place  to  brace  his  own  faith  and  steel 
his  own  courage.  It  was  a  vision  of  the  things 
that  are,  the  unseen  things  which  really  count  in 
the  history  of  men,  calculated  to  counteract  for 
ever  afterwards  the  impression  of  things  as  they 
seem.  What  seemed  to  be  the  case  was  that 
each  of  these  Christian  communities  was  lost  as 
a  drop  in  the  surrounding  ocean  of  worldliness 
and  hostility  to  God,  isolated  from  its  neighbours 
many  miles  away  across  the  hills,  far  from  help 
and  at  the  mercy  of  men.  What  was  really  true, 
as  revealed  to  the  Apostle  in  his  vision,  was  that 
each  of  these  Churches  formed  part  of  a  perfect 
whole  represented  by  the  mystic  number  seven, 
that  all  of  them  were  held  together  by  the  unseen 
presence  in  their  midst  of  the  risen  Son  of  Man, 
that  each  of  these  Churches  as  it  was  seen  by 
God  was  held  in  the  hand  of  Him  who  is  mighty 
to  save,  who  holds  the  keys  of  death  and  of 
Hades. 

And  John  sets  the  record  of  his  vision  here  in 
the  forefront  of  his  book,  partly  because  it  gives 
the  explanation  of  his  call  to  write,  and  partly 
because  this  is  characteristic  of  his  method,  and 
indeed  the  great  service  he  has  rendered  to  the 
Church.  The  key  to  time  is  eternity.  Human 
hfe  transacts  itself,  as  it  were,  upon  a  stage,  and 
only  finds  its  true  meaning  and  value  when  seen 


CHAPTEK  I.  9-20  47 

against  the  true  background,  the  background  of 
things  that  are.  To  the  ordinary  observer,  unin- 
structed  by  the  Spirit  in  the  mind  of  God,  it  may 
seem  as  though  there  were  nothing  but  a  flat 
curtain  just  behind  the  figures  on  the  stage,  and 
for  him  both  men  and  their  actions  and  their 
sufferings  lose  their  true  proportions.  But  John, 
the  inspired  man,  sees  through  the  veil,  sees  the 
illimitable  distance  beyond,  the  whole,  of  which 
each  man's  brief  part  upon  the  stage  is  but  a 
fraction,  the  eternal  which  gives  its  true  value 
to  what  is  in  time.  And,  further,  he  sees  the 
figure  of  Christ  central  and  dominating,  already 
the  interpretation  of  much  in  the  experience  of 
His  people,  but  also  Author  of  that  deathless 
hope  in  the  power  of  which  they  might  face 
the  rest  without  interpretation.  We  shall  have 
taken  a  great  step  towards  the  understanding  of 
this  book  if  we  realise  that  through  all  its 
details  it  is  this  single  and  commanding  im- 
pression which  John  has  received  through  the 
vision  of  the  Son  of  Man,  Christ  living,  supreme, 
aware,  and  caring  for  His  Churches,  holding 
them,  in  fact,  in  His  hand.  What  he  saw  as 
a  whole,  the  here  and  the  beyond,  the  temporal 
and  the  eternal,  he  has  necessarily  to  describe 
in  succession,  first  the  one  and  then  the  other ; 
but  always  with  the  conviction  that  what 
governs,    interprets,     and    even     justifies,     the 


48        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

present  is  the  eternal.  No  threats  can  dismay, 
no  danger  can  cow,  no  temptation  can  over- 
master those  who  have  seen  with  him  the  Son 
of  Man  ever  moving  through  the  circle  of  com- 
munities which  form  His  Church — nay,  holding 
them  as  a  circlet  of  brilliants  in  His  hand. 
Nought  can  make  them  afraid ;  for  they  endure 
as  seeing  the  invisible. 


THE  LETTEE  TO  THE  CHUKCH 
AT  EPHESUS 

Kev.  ii.  1-7 

These  ihings  saith  lie  that  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  his 
right  hand,  he  that  walketh  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden 
candlestichs  :  I  know  thy  worhs,  and  thy  toil  and  patience^ 
and  that  thou  canst  not  hear  evil  men,  and  didst  try  them, 
which  call  themselves  apostles,  and  they  are  not,  and  didst 
find  them  false;  and  thou  hast  patience  and  didst  hear 
for  my  name's  sake,  and  hast  not  grown  lueary.  But 
I  have  this  against  thee,  that  thou  didst  leave  thy  first 
love.  Bememher  tJieref ore  from  whence  thou  art  fallen,  and 
repent,  and  do  the  first  works  ;  or  else  I  come  to  thee,  and 
will  move  thy  candlestiek  out  of  its  place,  except  thou 
repent.  But  this  thou  hast,  that  thou  hatest  the  works  of 
the  Nicolaitans,  which  I  also  hate.  He  that  hath  an  ear, 
let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches.  To  him 
that  overcometh,  will  I  give  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,  which 
is  in  the  Paradise  of  God  {B.V.). 

The  letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  form  a  distinct 
and  well-marked  section  of  this  book,  and  have 
often  been  studied  separately.  And  yet  they  are 
closely  connected  with  what  has  gone  before  and 
with  n^uch  that  follows.    Each  one  of  them  is 

5  49 


60        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

written  at  the  express  command  of  the  Son  of 
Man  whom  the  Apostle  saw  in  his  vision,  and  is, 
in  fact,  written  in  His  name.  And  it  is  to  all  of 
these  same  Churches  that  John  has  been  instructed 
to  send  "a  book  "  containing  an  account  of  what 
he  has  seen  :  this  instruction  he  carries  out  in  the 
chapters  which  follow  the  letters.  The  principles 
which  they  illustrate  are  woven  into  the  texture 
of  the  whole  work,  and  much  of  their  symbolism 
has  a  common  source  with  that  which  appears 
later.  But  even  taken  by  themselves  the  letters 
offer  a  fascinating  subject  of  study,  and  afford 
some  of  the  most  interesting  glimpses  that  we 
get  into  Christian  life  towards  the  end  of  the 
first  century,  and  not  a  few  most  valuable  sug- 
gestions for  Christian  life  in  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth. 

It  is  at  once  apparent  that  all  the  seven  letters 
are  constructed  on  a  common  plan.  Each  one  of 
them  opens  with  the  same  command  to  write  **  to 
the  augel  of  the  Church  "  :  followed  by  the  intro- 
ductory words,  ''These  things  saith."  Each 
letter  then  proceeds  to  describe  the  Speaker 
under  one  aspect  of  His  power,  one  which  is 
quoted  from  the  description  of  the  Figure  seen 
in  the  vision  of  the  first  chapter.  Each  Church 
addressed  is  then  characterised  in  a  sentence  or 
two  beginning,  ''  I  know,"  and  there  follows  an 
exhortation    fitted    to    the    circumstances     and 


CHAPTEE  II.  1-7  51 

character  of  the  Church ;  and  each  letter  culmi- 
nates in  a  promise  "to  him  that  overcometh." 
In  the  first  three  cases  this  precedes,  in  the  last 
four  it  follows,  a  solemn  appeal  for  attention: 
*'  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the 
Spirit  saith  to  the  churches."'  Within  a  frame- 
work so  carefully  constructed  and  so  precisely 
followed,  the  variable  elements  in  each  letter  are 
so  exquisitely  adjusted  to  the  history,  circum- 
stances, and  character  of  each  several  Church  that 
we  seem  to  get  "its  very  form  and  pressure" 
reproduced  on  a  perfectly  plastic  surface.  Brief 
as  the  letters  are,  each  one  of  them  presents  as 
in  a  clear-cut  cameo  the  portrait  of  the  Church 
addressed.  And  every  trait  which  is  added  from 
without  to  our  knowledge  of  the  history,  topo- 
graphy, or  idiosyncrasy  of  the  particular  Church, 
only  confirms  the  wonderful  accuracy  of  the 
portrait.  The  delineation  of  these  features  as 
they  have  been  preserved  in  the  landscape,  the 
annals  and  the  archaeological  remains  of  the 
several  localities,  has  recently  been  achieved  with 
unequalled  fulness  and  accuracy  by  Professor 
W.  M.  Eamsay,  to  whose  book.  The  Letters  to 
the  Seven  Churches,  every  student  of  the  subject 
should  refer. 

We  should,  however,  do  less  than  justice  to 
the  value  of  these  letters  if  we  allowed  our- 
selves to  overlook  the    second  aspect  in  which 


52        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

they  are  as  remarkable  as  in  the  first. 
Each  of  the  Churches  is  individuaHsed  in  the 
most  effective  way;  but  each  of  them  is  also 
addressed  in  a  representative  capacity,  and  all 
together  stand  for  the  v^hole  Church,  reflecting 
the  strength  and  weakness,  the  victories  and 
shortcomings  which  characterise  the  Church  of 
Christ  wherever  it  may  be  found.  It  is  possible 
that,  as  Mr.  Kamsay  thinks,  each  Church  to 
which  a  letter  is  sent  is  to  be  looked  on  as  the 
head  and  centre  of  a  group  of  local  Churches : 
and  yet  the  writer  *'  does  not  think  of  the  Smyrna 
group  when  he  addresses  Smyrna,  nor  is  he  think- 
ing of  the  Universal  Church  :  he  addresses  Smyrna 
alone  :  he  has  it  clear  before  his  mind,  with  all 
its  special  qualities  and  individualities.  Yet  the 
group  which  had  its  centre  in  Smyrna  and  the 
whole  Universal  Church  alike  found  that  the 
letter  which  was  written  for  Smyrna  applied 
equally  to  them,  for  it  was  a  statement  of  eternal 
truths  and  universal  principles."  "  The  idea  that 
the  individual  Church  is  part  of  the  Universal 
Church,  that  it  stands  for  it  after  the  usual 
symbolic  fashion  of  the  Apocalypse,  is  never  far 
from  the  writer's  mind ;  and  he  passes  rapidly 
between  the  two  points  of  view,  the  direct 
address  to  the  local  Church  as  an  individual 
body  with  special  needs  of  its  own,  and  the 
general  application  and  apostrophe  to  the  entire 


CHAPTEK  II.  1-7  53 

Church  as    symbolised  by  the   particular   local 
Church."  * 

Ephesus,  to  the  Church  in  which  city  the  first 
of  these  letters  is  sent,  stood  foremost  among  the 
seven  in  rank,  in  historical  importance,  and  in 
wealth.  But  in  no  one  of  these  features  on 
which  she  prided  herself  was  her  superiority 
unchallenged.  Planted  at  the  sea-end  of  one  of 
the  great  trade-routes  from  the  East,  and  owing 
everything  to  this  favourable  position,  she  had 
watched  for  centuries  the  slow  silting  up  of  the 
harbour  on  which  her  trade  depended,  and  the 
growth  of  a  younger  rival  in  Smyrna,  some  fifty 
miles  to  the  north.  But  Ephesus  was  not  entirely 
dependent  upon  her  trade  and  commercial  supre- 
macy ;  she  was  the  political  capital  of  the  Koman 
Province,  and  even  more  distinguished  in  the 
eyes  of  her  inhabitants  and  neighbours  by  having 
within  her  walls  the  famous  Temple  of  Artemis, 
"Diana  of  the  Ephesians,"  of  whom  we  hear  so 
much  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  This  venerated 
shrine  attracted  year  by  year  many  thousands  of 
pilgrims,  and  therefore  no  little  wealth,  to  the 
city.  The  strategic  importance  of  such  a  centre 
for  the  missionary  work  of  the  Church  had  been 
promptly  recognised  by  St.  Paul,  who  laboured 
longer  at  Ephesus  than  at  any  other  town  in 
Asia  Minor.  And  the  result  was  that  he  left 
'•'•  See  Ramsay,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  200,  206. 


54        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

behind  him  a  Church  the  fame  of  which  in 
Christendom  matched  the  fame  of  the  city  in  the 
political  world.* 

"To  the  angel  of  the  church  at  Ephesus"— 
that  is,  to  its  heavenly  counterpart  and  respon- 
sible representative.  In  modern  language  the 
angel  of  the  Church  is  in  each  case  that  Church's 
better  self — that  self  which  is  stimulated  to  con- 
sciousness whenever  God's  voice  is  truly  heard  by 
it.  Just  as  "the  entrance  of  his  word"  giveth 
light  to  our  own  better  selves,  so  Christ  by  this 
address  seeks  to  waken  the  Church's  better  self 
to  activity  and  effectiveness.  And  what  He  says 
falls  into  three  parts — Kecognition,  Warning,  and 
Promise. 

First  comes  the  Eecognition :  "I  know  thy 
works."  The  same  words  are  used  to  five  out 
of  the  seven  Churches.  As  another  New  Testa- 
ment writer  puts  it,  "  God  is  not  unrighteous  to 
forget  your  work  and  the  love  which  ye  showed 
towards  his  name."  The  "  works  "  in  this  case 
are  further  defined  as  "  thy  toil  and  patience," 
and  the  meaning  of  the  whole  is  well  illustrated 
in  the  expanded  phrase  used  by  St.  Paul  in 
writing  to  the  Thessalonians — "remembering 
3^our  work  of  faith  and  labour  of  love  and  patience 
of  hope."     Their  "toil"  is  active  and  laborious 

*  Ignatius  speaks  of  the  Church  at  Ephesus  as  "  renowned 
to  all  ages." 


CHAPTEE  II.  1-7  55 

effort  to  resist  and  overcome  evil;  their  ^'patience" 
the  steadfast  endurance  of  pressure  and  persecu- 
tion in  the  cause  of  Christ.  Poor  Httle  Church 
of  some  few  hundreds  gathered  out  of  the  many 
thousands  in  the  great  city,  passing  cautiously 
through  the  streets  to  their  place  of  meeting, 
prepared  to  meet  persecution  yet  not  courting  it ; 
labouring  with  zeal  and  faith  to  make  known  to 
others  the  good  news  which  they  had  received, 
that  *'God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
unto  himself";  putting  up  with  the  disabilities 
of  their  new  relation  to  the  world,  its  contempt, 
its  dislike,  its  hostility,  its  possible  cruelty; 
bearing  all  this  with  patient  endurance  ''  as 
seeing  him  who  is  invisible,"  and  yet  wondering 
sometimes  what  is  to  be  the  end  of  it,  what  is 
the  good  of  it  now.  For  Ephesus  goes  on  pretty 
much  as  before,  with  its  frivolity  and  revelries, 
its  immoralities  and  indifference.  The  Temple  of 
Artemis  is  thronged  as  ever ;  the  processions  of  its 
votaries  sweep  through  the  streets.  The  frequent 
salutation  from  Christian  lips,  *'  Maranatha " 
("the  Lord  cometh "),  sometimes  rings  hollow 
with  the  consciousness  of  hope  too  long  deferred. 
"As  things  have  been  they  remain."  Who  is, 
after  all,  the  better  for  their  toil  and  patience  ? 
Who  cares,  in  Ephesus  ?  To  such  thoughts  ^he 
answer  comes,  "I  know  thy  works."  Every  act 
of    faith,   every    ministry    of    self-denial,    every 


56        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

humble  acceptance  of  the  Cross  for  the  Master*s 
sake,  finds  its  recognition  from  the  Master's  eye, 
has  its  record  in  heaven. 

And  these  Christians  at  Ephesus  had  one 
quaHty  which  called  for  special  acknowledgment — 
that  which  St.  Paul  refers  to  as  the  power  to 
discern  spirits,  to  distinguish  between  what  was 
false  and  true  in  that  which  claimed  to  come 
from  God.  This  gift  was  one  for  which  there 
was  special  need  at  a  time  when  many  were 
taking  it  upon  themselves  to  instruct  Christ's 
flock,  while  as  yet  there  w^as  no  established 
standard  of  Christian  faith  and  practice.  The 
number  of  men  was  by  this  time  very  consider- 
able, who  exercised  a  Christian  ministry,  apostolic 
or  prophetic,  on  the  ground  that  they  had  received 
the  gifts  of  the  Spirit  for  the  purpose.  Many, 
doubtless,  had  received  a  call  from  God  similar  to 
that  which  had  led  to  the  ordination  of  Paul  and 
Barnabas.  But  there  were  others  who  had  no 
such  authority  for  their  ministry,  who  had  been 
moved  by  personal  motives  of  varying  degrees  of 
unworthiness  to  exercise  the  ministry  without 
having  received  a  true  call.  The  young  Churches 
were  continually  being  visited  by  strangers  w^ho 
professed  to  be  Apostles  or  Prophets  of  Christ, 
and  they  needed  to  be  always  on  their  guard 
against  the  intrusion  of  false  teachers  and  false 
doctrine.     In  his  general  Epistle  St.  John  makes 


CHAPTEE  II.  1-7  57 

both  the  situation  and  the  warning  clear :  **  Be- 
lieve not  every  spirit,  but  try  the  spirits,  whether 
they  are  of  God ;  because  many  false  prophets  are 
gone  out  into  the  world."  In  these  circumstances 
a  Christian  Church  could  hardly  have  higher 
testimony  borne  to  it  than  this:  "Thou  didst 
try  them  which  call  themselves  apostles,  and 
they  are  not,  and  thou  didst  find  them  false." 
The  Church  of  Ephesus  knew  the  real  messengers 
of  Christ  when  it  heard  them:  the  others  it 
recognised  in  their  true  character,  and  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  them. 

The  whole  situation  is  brought  out  very  clearly, 
and  the  favourable  judgment  here  passed  on 
Ephesus  is  strikingly  confirmed,  in  another  letter 
written  to  the  same  Church  twenty  or  thirty 
years  later,  by  Ignatius,  bishop  and  martyr.  A 
few  quotations  from  this  letter  will  speak  for 
themselves  :  "  Some  are  wont  of  malicious  guile 
to  hawk  about  the  Name."  ''  I  have  learned  that 
certain  persons  passed  through  you  from  yonder, 
bringing  evil  doctrine  :  whom  ye  suffered  not  to 
sow  seed  in  you,  for  ye  stopped  your  ears,  so  that 
ye  might  not  receive  the  seed  sown  by  them." 
"  Now  Onesimus  of  his  own  accord  highly 
praiseth  your  orderly  conduct  in  God,  for  that 
ye  all  live  according  to  truth,  and  that  no  heresy 
hath  a  home  among  you:  nay,  you  do  not  so 
much  as  listen  to  any  one,  if  he  speak  of  aught 


58        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

else  save  concerning  Jesus  Christ  in  truth." 
There  we  have  both  the  presence  of  the  false 
teachers  and  the  firm  way  in  which  they  were 
ignored  by  the  Ephesian  Christians.  And  from 
the  same  pen  we  have  testimony  to  those  other 
qualities  in  the  Church  which  are  touched  upon 
in  this  letter.  Ignatius,  on  his  way  to  martyr- 
dom, writes:  "I  ought  to  be  trained  by  you 
for  the  contest,  in  faith,  in  admonition,  in 
endurance,  in  long-suffering." 

It  would  be  very  interesting  if  we  could  know 
with  certainty  who  these  false  teachers  were,  and 
what  was  the  nature  of  their  teaching.  What  is 
most  probable  is,  that  they  were  men  of  the  same 
school  as  those  who  dogged  the  footsteps  of  St. 
Paul,  professing  to  be  apostles  of  Christ,  but 
in  reahty  emissaries  of  the  Judaising  party  at 
Jerusalem.  If  so,  the  burden  of  their  teaching 
would  be  that  men  must  needs  become  Jews  in 
becoming  disciples  of  Christ,  and  so  were  bound 
to  "  keep  the  whole  law."  They  would  be  repre- 
sentatives of  the  party  with  whom  the  Apostle  of 
the  Gentiles  deals  so  trenchantly  in  his  Epistle  to 
the  Galatians,  desiring  to  bring  Christ's  people 
once  more  into  bondage  under  ordinances,  and 
impugning  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  had  made 
them  free.  And  when  the  Church  at  Ephesus 
would  have  none  of  such  teachers,  they  showed 
that  they  had  within  themselves  the   Spirit  of 


CHAPTEE  II.  1-7  59 

Christ,  a  sure  touchstone  of  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel. 

But  even  a  Church  which  invites  such  recogni- 
tion of  its  works  and  its  faithfulness  does  not 
escape  criticism,  and  incurs  serious  warning.  "  I 
have  this  against  thee,  that  thou  hast  left  thy 
first  love."  These  people  w^ere  still  doing  the 
works,  but  the  inner  fire  had  burnt  low,  and 
the  works  themselves,  even  though  outwardly 
the  same,  were  not  now  **  the  first  works  "  in  the 
eye  of  God.  The  external  evidence  of  their  faith 
was  like  the  pointer  on  a  self-registering  thermo- 
meter: it  marked  the  highest  level  which  their 
spiritual  temperature  had  reached;  but  where 
was  the  mercury  now?  We  may  take  it  that 
there  never  was  a  community  of  Christians,  of 
some  years'  standing,  perhaps  there  never  was  an 
individual  Christian,  to  whom  at  some  time  or 
other  the  Spirit  of  Christ  had  not  this  re- 
monstrance to  address  :  ''  Thou  hast  left  thy  first 
love."  It  may  be  that  many  at  least  of  the  works 
which  were  prompted  by  that  first  love  are  still 
being  done ;  and  yet  God  hath  this  against  us : 
we  have  this  against  ourselves.  "We  say,  Where 
is  the  blessedness  I  knew  when  first  I  saw  the 
Lord? 

How,  then,  does  the  Spirit  deal  with  this  con- 
dition ?  As  revealed  in  this  letter,  in  two  ways  : 
partly  by  the  utterance  of  a  solemn  threat,  and 


60        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

partly  by  loving  counsel.  The  threat  is  that  the 
Lord  will  remove  the  Church  **  out  of  its  place/* 
a  threat  not  of  destruction,  as  some  have  thought, 
but  of  material  and  grievous  change.  The  con- 
dition of  this  Church  is  not  like  that  of  Laodicea, 
for  example :  it  is  not  one  v^hich  calls  for  even 
the  threat  of  extinction ;  Ephesus  had  true  love 
and  genuine  loyalty,  and  the  threat  of  Divine 
discipline  would  meet  the  case. 

There  is  an  interesting  and,  in  many  ways, 
an  attractive  explanation  which  has  been  put 
forward  by  Professor  Kamsay,  based  upon  a  close 
study  of  the  topography  and  history  of  Ephesus. 
He  points  out  that  one  characteristic  which 
belongs  to  Ephesus  and  distinguishes  its  history 
from  that  of  all  the  other  cities,  is  change.  "In 
most  ancient  sites  one  is  struck  by  the  immuta- 
bility of  Nature  and  the  mutability  of  all  human 
additions  to  Nature.  In  Ephesus  it  is  the  shifting 
character  of  the  natural  conditions  on  which  the 
city  depends  for  prosperity  that  strikes  every 
careful  observer,  every  student  either  of  history 
or  of  Nature.  This  scenery  and  this  site  have 
varied  from  century  to  century.  Where  there 
w^as  water,  there  is  now  land ;  what  was  a 
populated  city  in  one  period,  ceased  to  be  so  in 
another,  and  has  again  become  the  centre  of  life 
for  the  valley ;  where  at  one  time  there  was  only 
bare  hillside  or  the  gardens  of  a  city  some  miles 


CHAPTER  II.  1-7  61 

distant,  at  another  time  there  was  a  city  crowded 
with  inhabitants,  and  this  has  again  relapsed  into 
its  earlier  condition :  the  harbour  in  which  St. 
John  and  St.  Paul  landed  has  become  a  mere 
marsh,  and  the  theatre  where  the  excited  crowd 
met  and  shouted  to  Diana,  desolate  and  ruinous 
as  it  is,  has  been  more  permanent  than  the 
harbour.  .  .  .  The  city  followed  the  sea,  and 
changed  from  place  to  place  to  maintain  its  im- 
portance as  the  only  harbour  of  the  valley."  * 

Accordingly,  Mr.  Eamsay concludes :  "A  threat 
of  removing  the  Church  from  its  place  would 
be  inevitably  understood  by  the  Ephesians  as  a 
denunciation  of  another  change  in  the  site  of 
the  city,  and  must  have  been  so  intended  by  the 
writer." 

Should  a  threat  of  this  character  seem  hardly 
grave  enough  for  what  is  here  predicted,  then  we 
must  fall  back  on  the  explanation  of  persecution 
and  the  consequent  scattering  of  the  Church, 
which  was  indeed  its  fate.  The  main  point  is 
to  observe  that  it  is  the  candlestick,  the  earthly 
form  of  the  Church,  which  is  to  be  moved  out  of 
its  place;  the  star  remains  in  the  hand  of  the 
Eedeemer.  For  there  is  at  Ephesus,  as  in  nearly 
every  community  which  names  itself  by  the  name 
of  Christ  (the  case  of  Laodicea  a  possible  excep- 
tion), an  invisible  Church,  a  proportion  great  or 
*  See  Eamsay,  loc.  cit,  p.  245. 


62        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

small  of  those  whose  names  are  written  in 
heaven,  whose  relation  to  their  Saviour  cannot 
be  affected  even  by  the  scattering  of  the  visible 
Church.  And  it  is  they  who  will  lay  both  the 
threat  and  the  counsel  to  heart.  The  counsel  is 
to  **  remember"  and  "repent."  Kemember  the 
early  time,  '*  the  love  of  thine  espousals."  He  is 
the  same :  He  changeth  not.  His  love  is  great 
and  strong  as  ever.  And  thy  need  of  it  is  as 
great  as  ever:  nay,  it  is  greater.  For  the  only 
thing  that  causes  thee  to  shrink  from  remem- 
bering is  shame — shame  that  the  cares  and 
pleasures  of  this  life  have  been  allowed  to  choke 
the  good  seed,  shame  that  thy  love  has  been 
unequal  to  His,  less  constant,  less  pure,  less 
strong.  And  for  that  shame  He  and  He  alone 
has  the  remedy.  It  was  concerning  an  Israel 
that  had  sinned  her  mercies  that  the  Lord  pro- 
claimed through  Hosea:  "I  will  betroth  thee 
unto  me  for  ever;  yea,  I  will  betroth  thee  unto 
me  in  righteousness  and  justice,  in  leal  love  and 
tender  mercies."  Eemember  the  high  privilege 
from  which  thou  art  fallen ;  remember  it  not  as 
lost  but  as  offered  to  thee  by  the  same  pierced 
hand  by  which  it  was  at  the  first  bestowed: 
remember  and  repent,  and  do  the  first  works  in 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  first  love. 

There  remains  the  promise :   and  that  is  con- 
nected in  this  case  with  another  point  which  has 


CHAPTEK  II.  1-7  63 

been  recorded  to  the  credit  of  the  Church  at 
EphesTis,  "  But  this  thou  hast,  that  thou  hatest 
the  works  of  the  Nicolaitans,  which  I  also  hate." 
About  these  Nicolaitans  we  know  practically 
nothing  beyond  what  can  be  gathered  from  allu- 
sions in  these  letters.  In  the  Century  Bible  the 
present  writer,  following  many  good  authorities, 
was  inclined  to  regard  them  as  identical  with  the 
false  teachers  previously  referred  to  in  this  letter, 
those  "  which  call  themselves  apostles,  and  they 
are  not."  But  on  further  consideration,  it  seems 
more  in  accordance  with  all  the  available  evidence 
to  see  in  the  false  apostles  and  the  Nicolaitans 
two  distinct  and,  indeed,  antithetical  forces 
which  endangered  the  purity  of  the  Church  from 
opposite  sides.  "Ye  must  keep  the  whole  law 
of  Moses,"  said  the  intruders  from  the  side  of 
Judaism.  "  Nay,"  said  the  Christians  of  Ephesus, 
who  had  drunk  in  Paul's  teaching,  "not  so,  for 
Christ  hath  made  us  free  from  the  law."  "If 
that  be  so,"  said  another  party,  the  Nicolaitans, 
"then  let  us  use  our  freedom,  let  us  show  that  we 
are  above  the  law,  by  living  as  we  please."  And 
so  they  threatened  to  turn  the  liberty  of  the 
Gospel  into  an  excuse  for  all  manner  of  libertinism 
and  immorality.  These  two  tendencies  were  the 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  between  which  the  Church 
of  the  first  century  had  to  find  the  middle  path 
of  safety.    And  the  true  Christian  standard  which 


64        THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

prevailed  at  Ephesus  enabled  the  Church  there  to 
perceive  the  falsehood  of  this  extreme  also  :  as 
they  rejected  the  teacJiing  of  the  false  teachers, 
so  they  hated  the  works  of  the  Nicolaitans.  Not 
that  they  were  not  tempted,  some  of  them  by  the 
lust  of  the  flesh,  tempted  to  think  that  these 
Nicolaitans  were  right,  and  that  a  Christian 
might  do  with  impunity  what  for  another  man 
was  sin.  But  they  had  "an  unction  from  the 
Holy  One,"  and  they  knew  that  this  was  not  the 
mind  of  Christ. 

The  form  which  this  temptation  took  gives  its 
form  to  the  promise  with  which  the  letter  closes. 
Were  they  tempted  by  this  diabolical  attempt  to 
legitimise  the  worst  of  human  passions,  tempted 
by  the  desire  to  gratify  carnal  appetites  regard- 
less of  the  moral  law,  let  them  continue  to  resist, 
understanding  that  he  that  doeth  evil  is  evil, 
whatever  he  may  believe.  Let  them  continue 
to  fight  manfully  in  this  conflict,  and  "  to  him 
that  overcometh"  shall  be  given  "to  eat  of  the 
tree  of  life,"  of  fruit  which  is  not  as  the  fruit  of 
Sodom,  but  prepared  by  God  for  the  true  and 
perfect  satisfaction  of  human  nature's  needs. 

The  Nicolaitans  are  not  extinct.  Our  modern 
cities  are  as  hospitable  to  them  as  Ephesus  or 
any  of  the  cities  of  the  Roman  Empire.  They 
have  many  avenues  of  insidious  approach  for 
their    nauseous     doctrines.      For    the    young, 


CHAPTEE  II.   1-7  65 

especially,  they  lie  in  wait,  urging  that  self- 
indulgence  in  natural  appetite  cannot  be  wrong, 
daring  even  to  charge  upon  God  the  evil  results 
of  such  self-indulgence.  They  spread  snares  of 
every  kind  for  the  unwary  and  the  unwarned, 
even  inventing  ways  to  rouse  "  the  beast  in 
man."  The  only  safeguard  is  to  hate  all  such 
instigations  to  evil,  to  hate  as  Christ  hates  them  ; 
and  then  to  claim  from  Him  the  fulfilment  of 
this  great  promise,  to  him  that  overcometh.  "  I 
will  give  him  to  eat  of  the  tree  of  life,"  of  the 
tree  whose  fruit  does  satisfy,  of  the  tree  whose 
satisfaction  endures  :  all  else  turns  to  ashes :  this 
fulfilment  of  desire  which  comes  from  the  hand 
of  God  is  both  perfect  and  eternal. 


THE  LETTEE  TO  THE  CHUECH 
AT  SMYENA 

Bbv.  ii.  8-11 

These  things  saith  the  first  and  the  last,  which  was  deadj 
and  lived  again :  I  Icnow  thy  tribulation  and  thy  poverty 
{but  thou  art  rich),  and  the  blasphemy  of  them  which  say 
they  are  Jews,  and  they  are  not,  but  are  a  synagogue  of 
Satan.  Fear  not  the  things  which  thou  art  about  to  suffer : 
behold,  the  devil  is  about  to  cast  some  of  you  into  prison, 
that  ye  may  be  tried;  and  ye  shall  have  tribulation  ten 
days.  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee 
the  crown  of  life.  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what 
the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches.  He  that  overcometh  shall 
not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death  {E.V.). 

Smyrna  is  the  only  one  of  the  seven  cities  to 
which  these  letters  are  addressed  which  remains 
to  this  day  a  place  of  importance.  The  sites  on 
which  the  others  stood  are  now  either  vacant 
or  occupied  only  by  a  few  mud-houses  in  the 
midst  of  ancient  ruins.  But  the  traveller  to 
Smyrna  finds  a  large  and  flourishing  town,  with 
a  population  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  or  more, 
and  the  centre  of  a  wide-reaching  and  productive 


CHAPTEE  II.   8-11  67 

commerce.  It  is  said,  indeed,  to  be  the  most 
solidly  prosperous  city  within  the  Turkish  Empire, 
and  the  reason  of  its  prosperity  is  at  least  partially 
disclosed  in  the  fact  that  by  the  Turks  it  is  called 
"  Ismid  Giaour,"  Smyrna  the  heathen:  in  other 
words,  its  population  is  largely  composed  of  those 
who  profess  Christianity  and  are  at  least  pene- 
trated with  Christian  ideas.  There  is,  however, 
a  natural  cause  besides  for  this  prosperity,  which 
has  lasted  now  for  more  than  two  thousand  years, 
and  that  is  the  situation  of  the  city  at  the  top  of 
a  great  land-locked  bay  or  gulf,  in  which  great 
fleets  could  lie  in  safety,  and  also  at  the  lower 
end  of  one  of  the  great  river-valleys  which  strike 
up  from  the  coast  into  the  heart  of  Asia  Minor. 
Thus,  Smyrna  was  hardly  second  to  Ephesus 
as  an  emporium  of  trade,  and  indeed  vaunted 
itself  so  highly  that  it  carried  on  a  long  struggle 
both  with  Ephesus  on  the  south  and  with  Per- 
gamum  on  the  north  for  the  coveted  title  of  "Eirst 
City  in  Asia." 

Of  its  early  religious  history  we  know^  very 
little  beyond  the  fact  that  as  Ephesus  was  famous 
for  its  devotion  to  Artemis  and  for  the  splendour 
of  her  temple  there,  so  Smyrna  was  the  special 
home  of  the  cult  of  Dionysus,  the  god  of  vintage 
and  of  revelry.  But  there  is  in  the  Eoman 
historian  Tacitus  a  passage  which  throws  an 
interesting  light  on  the  religious  as  well  as  the 


68        THE   BOOK  OF   REVELATION 

political  situation  in  Smyrna  in  the  first  century. 
The  relation  of  the  Province  of  Asia  to  Rome 
was  roughly  that  of  India  to  Great  Britain  :  and 
then,  as  now,  the  dependency  not  infrequently 
sought  to  show  its  loyalty  and  to  secure  the 
Imperial  favour  by  the  erection  of  monuments 
or  pubHc  buildings.  In  the  year  23  a.d.  the  cities 
of  Asia  had  obtained  leave  to  erect  in  one  of 
them  a  temple  in  honour  of  Tiberius,  and  three 
years  later  they  all  sent  commissioners  to  Rome 
to  plead  their  respective  claims  to  furnish  the 
site.  "  The  Emperor,"  says  Tacitus,  "  in  order 
to  turn  away  public  attention  from  a  scandal," 
frequently  attended  the  Senate,  and  on  several 
days  listened  to  the  ambassadors  from  Asia  argu- 
ing as  to  which  city  should  be  the  one  where  the 
temple  was  to  be  erected.  Eleven  cities  were  en- 
gaged in  the  contest,  equally  ambitious,  but  not 
equally  important.  Situated  not  far  apart  from 
one  another  they  laid  stress  on  their  antiquity  and 
their  loyalty  to  Rome.  But  Laodicea,  Tralles, 
Troas,  and  some  others  were  passed  over  at  once, 
as  not  sufficiently  important.  There  was  more 
hesitation  about  HaHcarnassus,  which  for  twelve 
hundred  years  had  been  undisturbed  by  any  earth- 
quake :  Pergamum  was  rejected  on  the  very 
ground  put  forward  as  a  ground  of  claim — that 
it  had  already  a  temple  of  Augustus.  Ephesus 
and  Miletus  were  already  too  closely  associated 


CHAPTEE  II.   a-11  69 

with  the  ritual  and  worship  of  Diana  and 
Apollo.  Only  Sardis  and  Smyrna  remained.  The 
Sardian  advocates  strove  hard,  pointing  to  the 
history  of  their  town,  its  early  treaty  with  Kome, 
the  fertilising  power  of  its  streams,  the  wealth 
of  the  neighbourhood,  and  the  excellence  of  the 
climate.  The  envoys  from  Smyrna,  however, 
claimed  a  yet  greater  antiquity,  a  loyalty  to  Eome 
which  stretched  yet  further  back,  and  special 
services  rendered  to  a  Koman  army  in  great 
straits,  when  the  citizens  of  Smyrna  had  stripped 
themselves  of  their  clothing  to  cover  the  shivering 
Koman  troops.  So  when  the  vote  of  the  Senate 
was  taken,  Smyrna  carried  the  day. 

Some  sixty  years  had  elapsed  since  that  scene 
in  Kome,  when  John  wrote  this  letter  to  the 
Christians  in  Smyrna  ;  but  the  city  had  not 
declined  either  in  wealth  or  in  devotion  to  Kome. 
And  neither  its  wealth  nor  the  direction  of  its 
enthusiasm  was  favourable  to  the  Christian  cause 
and  the  Christian  people  in  the  city.  Poverty 
and  tribulation  were  the  outward  marks  of  the 
Church  there,  but  its  inward  marks  were  stead- 
fastness and  the  favour  of  God. 

It  has  been  already  pointed  out  that  the  more 
thoroughly  we  comprehend  the  history,  the  local 
circumstances,  and  the  social  surroundings  of 
each  of  these  Churches,  the  more  are  we  in  a 
position    to    appreciate    the    accuracy    of    these 


70        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

letters,  and  the  exquisite  adaptation  of  every 
phrase  in  them,  to  each  special  case.  Of  this  a 
good  illustration  is  found  here.  Like  all  the  rest, 
this  letter  begins  with  a  description  of  Christ,  the 
Speaker,  in  a  phrase  which  is  taken  from  the  full 
description  of  the  Son  of  Man  as  John  had  seen 
Him.  And  as  there  is  in  some  of  the  cases 
an  unmistakable  appropriateness  in  the  phrase 
selected  to  the  circumstances  of  the  Church 
which  is  addressed,  so  it  is  natural  to  assume 
an  appropriateness  even  in  those  cases  where 
the  application  is  less  immediately  obvious.  To 
Smyrna  Christ  speaks  as  "  the  first  and  the  last, 
who  was  dead,  and  yet  liveth."  What  could  be 
more  appropriate  in  addressing  "  an  age-long  city 
half  as  old  as  time  "  ?  A  city  where  the  popula- 
tion prided  itself  on  this  very  antiquity,  and 
traced  its  foundation  back  to  the  gods  them- 
selves. A  city  where,  as  the  beginning  seemed 
to  be  lost  in  the  dim  past,  so  the  end  seemed  a 
thing  unthinkable.  And  yet  the  Christians  in 
this  city  set  against  all  this  material  splendour 
and  this  vast  duration  the  conviction  that  there 
were  higher  things,  things  more  precious  and 
more  lasting.  How  difficult  it  was  for  them  to 
keep  alive  this  conviction  in  the  face  of  what  men 
called  facts  !  "I,"  with  whom  you  have  to  do, 
"I  am  the  first  and  the  last":  even  before 
Smyrna  was,  I  am :  and  when  Smyrna  is  for- 


CHAPTER  11.  8-11  71 

gotten,  I  shall  be,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  for  ever.  And  even  the  death  v^hich  must 
surely  overtake  each  one  of  you,  the  martyr's 
death  which  awaits  some  of  you,  makes  no 
difference.  I  was  dead,  and  yet  live.  Neither 
time  and  the  things  of  time,  nor  death  and  the 
agonies  of  death,  do  alter  life  for  those  who 
have  heard  My  voice,  and  know  Me  as  their 
Saviour. 

Coming  to  the  body  of  this  letter,  we  find  three 
things  made  prominent — the  outward  condition  of 
the  Church,  its  poverty,  the  inward  spirit  or  temper 
of  the  Church,  its  loyalty,  and  the  final  reward  of 
loyalty  shown  through  poverty  and  tribulation, 
namely,  life.  "I  know  thy  tribulation  and  thy 
poverty."  The  tribulation  arose  partly  from  the 
pressure  of  the  world,  the  constant  friction  of 
antagonistic  ideas  and  diverse  aims  in  life,  such 
as  was  and  is  inevitable  when  a  Christian  com- 
munity is  planted  in  the  midst  of  a  heathen 
population.  From  organised  persecution  Smyrna 
had  up  to  this  time  been  free,  but  none  the  less 
there  would  be  for  every  true  disciple  of  Jesus  a 
very  real  bearing  of  the  Cross,  a  daily  call  for 
patience  and  self-sacrifice,  "  for  the  testimony  of 
Jesus."  But  the  tribulation  was  also  due  in  part 
to  the  presence,  in  large  numbers,  of  Jews  who 
had  only  a  nominal  claim  to  belong  to  God's 
Israel,  and  proved  their  own  righteousness  rather 


72        THE   BOOK  OF   EEVELATION 

by  attacking  the  believers  in  a  crucified  Messiah 
than  by  walking  in  the  law  of  Moses.  It  does 
not  appear  that  these  were  Jewish  Christians, 
such  as  troubled  the  Church  at  Ephesus  :  they 
were  Jews  by  birth  and  by  profession,  who  had 
departed  so  far  from  the  standards  of  their 
religion  that  they  no  longer  deserved  the  name, 
while  from  the  standpoint  of  fierce  orthodoxy 
they  reviled  the  Christians.  Such  Jews  were 
found  by  this  time  in  all  the  chief  cities  of  the 
empire,  a  powerful  body,  and  unscrupulous  in 
their  hostility  to  the  followers  of  Christ.  But 
they  would  appear  to  have  been  unusually  strong 
and  unusually  bitter  at  Smyrna.  For  when  some 
fifty  years  later  many  Christians  perished  in  the 
persecution,  and  amongst  them  the  saintly  Poly- 
carp,  it  is  recorded  that  the  Jews  were  eager  in 
bringing  faggots  to  the  theatre  for  the  burning 
of  the  Christians,  "  sabbath  day  though  it  was." 
Here  there  was  cause  enough  for  '*  tribulation," 
and  it  had  to  be  borne  with  the  added  dis- 
advantages of  poverty. 

It  is  very  significant  that  the  Church  which, 
if  it  does  not  receive  the  same  positive  praise  as 
that  of  Philadelphia,  is  at  any  rate  distinct  from 
all  the  other  Churches  in  receiving  no  reproach 
at  all,  should  be  also  the  one  marked  out  from 
the  rest  by  its  poverty.  It  was  a  living  illustra- 
tion   of    the    beatitude    pronounced    by    Jesus 


CHAPTER  II.   8-11  73 

"  Blessed  are  ye  poor,  for  yours  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven."  For  our  Lord  does  so  absolutely 
reverse  the  common  judgment  of  the  Vi^orld,  that 
He  holds  them  blessed  who  are  poor  in  this 
world's  goods.  Not  that  there  is  any  virtue  in 
being  poor,  or  specially  attaching  to  those  who 
are  poor,  but  because  as  a  matter  of  experience 
riches,  wealth,  social  security  are  so  great  a 
danger  to  the  higher  life  of  man,  because  the 
moral  demand  made  upon  a  rich  man  ere  he 
can  qualify  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  so 
much  more  severe  than  that  which  is  felt  by  the 
poor.  Many  a  poor  man  cries  out  in  the  midst 
of  his  poverty :  **How  hard  it  is  to  trust  God!" 
and  yet  he  trusts  Him.  But  for  the  rich  man 
it  is  not  only  hard.  Christ  thought  it  almost 
impossible  ;  because  he  requires  not  only  to  have 
faith  in  the  unseen,  but  to  have  want  of  faith 
in  the  seen,  want  of  faith  in  that  riches  the 
evidence  of  which  is  before  him  every  hour,  want 
of  faith  in  his  power,  although  every  one  round 
him  bows  down  to  it,  want  of  faith  in  himself, 
although  to  human  eyes  he  appears  to  be  the 
master  of  his  circumstances.  If  only  men  could 
open  their  hearts  to  the  conviction  that  Christ 
was  right  in  this  matter,  those  who  are  rich  in 
any  form  of  possession  would  look  on  their  riches 
with  trembling,  and  those  who  are  poor  would 
find  in  the  daily  looking  to  the  hand  of  God  a 


74        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

daily  discovery  that  this  is  true :  "  God  hath 
chosen  them  that  are  poor  as  to  the  world  to  be 
rich  in  faith  and  heirs  of  the  kingdom  which  he 
promised  to  them  that  love  him." 

This  was  the  experience  of  Smyrna.  The  out- 
ward poverty  of  the  Christians  there  was  accom- 
panied by  an  inward  loyalty  to  God,  so  deep  and 
strong  that  it  outweighed  their  poverty,  and 
overcame  their  tribulation — nay,  might  be  trusted 
to  overcome  the  further  tribulation  which  was 
looming  in  the  near  future.  For  their  Lord 
would  not  conceal  from  them  that  more  and 
greater  trouble  was  to  come.  In  their  case 
tribulation  had  wrought  patience,  and  patience 
had  brought  about  a  condition  of  testedness,  in 
which  they  could  bear  with  equanimity  even  the 
announcement  of  new  trials.  They  were  their 
Lord's  friends,  and  He  would  not  conceal  from 
them  what  was  in  His  mind:  "Ye  shall  have 
tribulation  ten  days." 

Why  '^ten  days"?  Much  thought  and  in- 
genuity had  been  spent  in  the  attempt  to  dis- 
cover the  meaning  of  this  and  the  many  other 
periods  of  time  w^hich  are  indicated  in  this  book. 
And  as  this  is  the  first  occasion  when  such  a 
number  is  met  with,  it  may  be  well  to  consider 
the  general  question  of  the  place  of  numbers  in 
the  symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse.  It  may  be 
said  at  once  that  so  far  as  they  refer  to  extension 


CHAPTEK  II.   8-11  75 

in  time  or  space,  no  one  of  these  numbers  is  to 
be  understood  literally.  When  they  refer  to 
objects,  the  candlesticks,  the  Churches,  the  heads 
and  horns  of  the  Monster,  the  *'  living  creatures," 
and  the  like,  they  are  to  be  taken  literally  in  a 
sense.  That  is  to  say,  the  Apostle  had  before 
his  mind  in  these  cases  a  definite  number  of 
objects  corresponding  to  the  figure  which  he 
gives.  In  regard  to  space  and  time  he  uses 
numbers  to  express  rather  their  character  and 
quality  than  their  extent  or  duration.  One  set 
of  numbers,  notably  three,  seven,  ten,  and 
twelve,  with  their  multiples,  convey  the  ideas 
of  completeness  and  satisfaction,  and  so  are 
associated  with  the  merciful  dispensations  of 
God;  another  set,  notably  three  and  a  half  in 
various  forms  and  multiples  (forty  and  two 
months,  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  three- 
score days,  a  time  times  and  half  a  time)  convey 
the  ideas  of  broken  continuity,  imperfection  and 
confusion,  and  so  are  associated  with  the  domina- 
tion of  wickedness  or  the  punitive  dispensations 
of  God.  Such  numbers  in  all  the  Apocalyptic 
literature  have  a  purely  conventional  value.  A 
"thousand  years"  stands  for  a  rounded  and 
complete  period  of  long  but  unknown  duration. 
"  Three  and  a  half  years  "  derives  its  sinister 
meaning  in  part  from  its  being  a  broken  seven, 
in  part  from  its  having  been  the  duration  of  the 


76        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

reign  of  Antiochus,  when  "the  abomination  of 
desolation  "  first  made  its  appearance  in  Jewish 
experience. 

It  follows  that  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the 
word  there  is  no  chronology  to  be  sought  or  to  be 
found  in  this  book.  **  The  Seer  does  not  look  for- 
ward to  age  succeeding  age  or  century  century. 
To  him  the  whole  period  between  the  first  and 
the  second  coming  of  Christ  is  but  'a  little  time,' 
and  whatever  is  to  happen  in  it  *  must  shortly 
come  to  pass.'  In  truth  he  can  hardly  be  said  to 
deal  with  the  lapse  of  time  at  all.  He  deals  with 
the  essential  characteristics  of  the  Divine  govern- 
ment in  time,  whether  it  be  long  or  short.  Shall 
the  revolving  years  be  in  our  sense  short,  these 
characteristics  will  nevertheless  come  forth  with  a 
clearness  which  shall  leave  man  without  excuse. 
Shall  they  be  in  our  sense  long,  the  unfolding  of 
God's  eternal  plan  will  be  only  again  and  again 
made  manifest."* 

But  it  is  not  only  vain  to  seek  to  construct  a 
chronology  of  the  future  out  of  the  periods  men- 
tioned in  this  book,  and  thus  to  establish  *'  the  time 
of  the  end."  It  seems  perilously  like  presumption 
in  view  of  our  Lord's  specific  declaration:  "Ye 
know  not  the  day  nor  the  hour."  The  time  of  the 
end  is  a  secret  reserved  in  the  mind  of  the  Most 
High  alone  :  "  Of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no 
*  Milligan,  Expositor's  Bible,  p.  112. 


CHAPTER  II.   8-11  77 

man,  no,  not  the  angels  of  heaven,  but  my  Father 
only."  And  this  was  clearly  recognised  by  the 
Church  of  the  first  century,  in  whose  understand- 
ing it  was  firmly  fixed  that  the  day  of  the  Lord 
would  come  **  as  a  thief  in  the  night."  The  per- 
petually recurring  admonition  to  watchfulness 
would  have  had  no  meaning,  had  it  been  possible 
to  extort  from  Scripture  the  secret  of  the  date 
when  the  end  would  come.  Even  if  we  had  the 
material,  which  we  have  not,  it  would  not  become 
us  to  pry  into  what  has  been  declared  to  be  God's 
secret :  the  true  attitude  of  the  Christian  is  that  of 
waiting  and  watching  for  his  Lord's  coming,  and 
that  is  the  attitude  which  the  whole  of  this  book 
serves  to  inculcate. 

The  *'  ten  days  "  of  tribulation,  then,  to  which 
Smyrna  is  to  be  exposed  are  not  to  be  interpreted 
as  describing  its  precise  duration ;  the  phrase 
simply  announces  a  period  of  persecution  which  is 
to  be  brief  and  definite.  The  Church  at  Smyrna 
could  be  trusted  to  receive  such  an  announcement 
without  questioning  and  without  dismay.  Her 
members  were  sound  at  heart.  They  had  not 
made  compromise  either  with  false  teaching  or 
with  libertinism.  And  the  history  of  the  Church 
within  the  next  half-century  showed  both  the 
fulfilment  of  this  prediction,  and  how  fully  the 
Lord's  confidence  in  His  people  was  justified. 

The  evidence  of  this  is  found  in  that  most 


78        THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

interesting  letter  which  was  sent  by  the  Church  at 
Smyrna  to  another  Church  in  which  an  account  is 
given  of  a  fierce  persecution  which  had  broken 
out,  and  of  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp,  which 
brought    it   to   a   close.      "The   church   of   God 
which  sojourneth  at  Smyrna  to  the  church  of  God 
which  sojourneth  at  Philomelium,  and  to  all  the 
holy  brotherhoods    of    the    holy    and    universal 
church  sojourning  in  every  place."     *'  We  write 
unto  you,   brethren,  an   account   of  what   befel 
those  that  suffered  martyrdom  and  especially  the 
blessed  Polycarp,   who   stayed  the  persecution; 
having  as  it   were   set  his  seal  upon  it  by  his 
martyrdom."     Then  we  hear  about  the  steadfast- 
ness of  other  witnesses  to  Christ.     *'  The  right 
noble  Germanicus  encouraged  their  timorousness 
through  the  constancy  that  was  in  him ;  and  he 
fought  with  the  wild  beasts  in  a  signal  way.     For 
when  the  pro-consul  wished  to  prevail  upon  him, 
and  bade  him  have  pity  on  his  youth,  he  used 
violence  and  dragged  the  wild  beast  towards  him, 
desiring  the  more  speedily  to  obtain  a  release  from 
their  unrighteous  and  lawless  life.     So  after  this 
all  the  multitude,  marvelling  at  the  bravery  of 
the  God-beloved  and  God-fearing  people  of  the 
Christians,  raised  a  cry,  '  Away  with  the  Atheist : 
let  search  be  made  for  Polycarp.' "     Then  we  read 
how  the  friends  of  the  aged  bishop  strove  to  per- 
suade him,  saying :  "Why,  what  harm  is  there  ia 


CHAPTER  II.   8-11  79 

saying,  Caesar  is  Lord,  and  offering  incense  to  his 
statue,  and  so  saving  thyself?  "  But  at  first  he 
gave  them  no  answer ;  when,  however,  they  per- 
sisted, he  said,  "  I  am  not  going  to  do  what  you 
counsel  me";  and  when  he  was  brought  into  the 
theatre,  the  magistrate  pressed  him  again,  and 
said  :  "  Swear  the  oath,  and  I  will  release  thee  : 
revile  the  Christ."  And  Polycarp's  reply  was  : 
**  Fourscore  and  six  years  have  I  been  His  servant, 
and  He  hath  done  me  no  wrong:  how  can  I 
blaspheme  my  King  who  saved  me?"  So  he  gave 
his  body  to  be  burned,  and  as  his  flock  put  it : 
"Having  by  his  endurance  overcome  the  un- 
righteous ruler  in  the  conflict,  and  so  received  the 
crown  of  immortality,  he  rejoiceth  in  company 
with  the  apostles  and  all  righteous  men,  and 
blesseth  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  our 
bodies  and  helmsman  of  our  souls,  and  shepherd 
of  the  universal  Church."  * 

"Having  received  the  crown  of  immortality." 
The  Church  at  Smyrna  must  have  laid  to  heart 
the  promise  with  which  the  letter  m  the  Revela- 
tion closes.  They  were  used  to  seeing  the  victors 
in  the  games  crowned  with  the  wreath,  which 
was  made  of  perishable  leaves ;  but  for  them- 
selves they  had  learned  to  look  beyond  their 
daily  conflict  with  evil,  through  the  fire  and 
smoke  of  martyrdom,  to  a  crown  of  imperishable 
*  See  The  Martyrdom  of  Poly  carp,  Lightfoofc's  translation. 


80        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

glory — a  crown  which  consisted  in  Hfe  for  ever- 
more. For  them  death  had  no  terrors.  It  had 
lost  that  which  alone  gave  it  its  sting  ;  for  Christ 
had  *'  loosed  them  from  their  sins."  The  "  second 
death  "  which  the  Jews  around  them  thought  of 
as  the  portion  of  the  wicked  after  the  resurrec- 
tion had  no  terrors  either.  The  Christ  for  whom 
they  lived,  was  the  Christ  in  whom  they  lived  ; 
and  He  was  alive  for  evermore.  To  be  absent 
from  the  body,  therefore,  was  only  to  be  more 
really  present  with  the  Lord. 


THE    LETTER    TO    THE    CHURCH    AT 
PERGAMUM 

Rev.  ii.  12-17 

And  to  the  angel  of  the  church  at  Pergamum  write; 
These  things,  saith  he,  that  hath  the  sharp  two-edged 
sword :  I  know  where  thou  dwellest,  even  where  Satan'' s 
throne  is ;  and  thou  holdest  fast  my  name,  and  didst  not 
deny  my  faith,  even  in  the  days  of  Antipas,  my  ivitness,  my 
faithful  one,  ivho  was  hilled  among  you,  where  Satan 
divelleth.  But  I  have  a  few  things  against  thee,  because 
thou  hast  there  some  that  hold  the  teaching  of  Balaam, 
who  taught  BalaJc  to  cast  a  stumbling -block  before  the 
children  of  Israel,  to  eat  things  sacrificed  to  idols,  and  to 
commit  fornication.  So  hast  thou  also  some  that  hold  the 
teaching  of  the  Nicolaitans  in  like  manner.  Bepent,  there- 
fore ;  or  else  I  come  to  thee  quicJcly,  and  I  will  make  war 
against  them  ivith  the  sword  of  my  mouth.  He  that  hath 
an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches. 
To  him  that  overcometh,  to  him  ivill  I  give  to  eat  of  the 
hidden  wanna,  and  I  will  give  him  a  white  stone,  and  upon 
the  stone  a  new  name  written  tvhich  no  one  knoweth  but 
he  that  receiveth  it  (B.V.). 

The  passage  from  the  Annals  of  Tacitus,  which 
was  quoted  in  the  last  chapter,  illustrates  not 
only  the  relative  claims  of  the  seven  cities  to 
recognition  by  the  Roman   State,   but  also  the 

7  81 


82        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

social  and  civil  significance  which  the  worship 
of  the  Emperor  had  attained  in  the  first  third  of 
the  first  century.  The  competition  among  the 
Asian  cities  was  for  the  honour  of  providing  the 
site  for  a  new  temple  of  the  reigning  Emperor ; 
and  as  this  subtle  and  diabolical  amalgam  of 
patriotism,  politics,  and  religion  is  the  subject  of 
repeated  allusion  in  the  Apocalypse,  its  origin 
and  its  meaning  require  to  be  noted.  It  began 
in  a  natural  and,  granted  the  polytheism  on 
which  it  rested,  a  comparatively  harmless  way. 
The  population  of  Western  Asia  Minor  had 
always  been  notorious  for  its  superstitious  cha- 
racter, the  avidity  with  which  it  welcomed  new 
deities  and  new  forms  of  worship,  and  for  the 
fanatical  enthusiasm  with  which  it  abandoned 
itself  to  religious  excitement.  Eome,  as  a  political 
power,  stood  to  these  people  very  much  as 
Britain  stands  to  many  parts  of  India ;  and  just 
as  in  India  we  find  some  of  the  native  peoples 
doing  a  kind  of  homage  to  what  they  call  the 
British  Raj,  just  as  some  of  them  have  even  gone 
the  length  of  paying  Divine  honours  to  the  name 
of  one  at  least  of  our  great  administrators  (John 
Nicholson),  so  the  natives  of  "Asia"  looked 
with  something  more  than  reverence  on  the 
great  civilising  power  of  the  West,  and  were 
ready  enough  to  conceive  of  the  ruling  sovereign 
in  distant  Kome  as  something  more  than  man. 


CHAPTEK  II.  12-17  83 

The  initiative,  however,  came  from  the  side  of  the 
Eoman  rulers  themselves.  The  claim  had  been 
advanced  by,  or  for,  Julius  Caesar  that  he  v^^as 
descended  from  the  goddess  Venus  Genitrix ; 
and  an  obsequious  assembly  at  Ephesus  had 
pronounced  him  to  be  ''  god  made  manifest,  the 
son  of  Ares  and  Aphrodite."  His  successor, 
Augustus,  was  the  object  of  yet  more  intense 
devotion  as  the  Saviour  of  the  civiHsed  world, 
and  a  kind  of  incarnation  of  the  genius  of  Eome. 
"  In  the  condition  of  human  thoughts  and 
religious  conceptions  that  then  prevailed,  such 
an  intense  feeling  must  take  a  religious  form. 
Whatever  deeply  affected  the  minds  of  a  body 
of  men,  few  or  many,  inevitably  assumed  a 
rehgious  character.  No  union  or  association  of 
any  kind  was  then  possible  except  in  a  common 
religion,  whose  ritual  expressed  the  common 
feelings  and  purpose.  Thus  the  growth  of  an 
Asian  Provincial  religion  of  Eome  and  the  Em- 
peror was  natural."  * 

The  material  forms  w^hich  this  Emperor- worship 
took  included  the  erection  of  temples  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  priestly  guilds  for  their  service. 
The  first  of  these  temples  to  be  erected  in  Asia 
was  fixed  at  Pergamum,  and  had  been  increasing 
in  importance  and  prestige  for  over  a  hundred 
years  when  this  letter  was  written.  Pergamum 
'•''  See  Ramsay,  loc.  cit.,  p.  118, 


84        THE  BOOK  OF  BEVELATION 

had  been  selected  as  the  site  for  this  temple 
because  it  was  historically  and  officially  the 
capital  of  the  province.  During  the  first  Christian 
century  it  was  being  slowly  ousted  from  its 
primacy  through  the  growing  importance  of 
Ephesus  and  Smyrna,  both  of  which  were 
geographically  better  situated  for  the  purposes 
of  commerce.  But  Pergamum  had  been  the 
royal  city  of  ancient  native  kings,  and  situated 
as  it  was  on  a  magnificent  hill  "  standing  out 
boldly  in  the  level  plain,  and  dominating  the 
valley  and  mountain  on  the  south,"  it  was 
also  a  ''royal  city"  to  behold;  and  it  remained 
at  least  till  the  end  of  this  century  the  seat  of 
Roman  government,  and  the  residence  of  the 
Pro-consul  of  Asia. 

These  two  features,  Pergamum,  the  seat  of 
the  Provincial  government,  and  Pergamum,  the 
site  of  the  oldest  and  most  famous  temple  of 
Emperor-worship,  provide  at  once  the  key  to 
the  situation  of  the  Church  in  that  city,  and  the 
clue  to  several  phrases  in  this  letter. 

"  Thus  saith  he  that  hath  the  sharp  two- 
edged  sword."  Again  we  have  in  the  phrase 
here  chosen  to  describe  the  author  of  the  letter, 
one  selected  from  the  description  of  the  Son 
of  Man  in  the  first  chapter,  and  the  appropriate- 
ness of  the  choice  is  obvious.  At  Pergamum  dwelt 
the  "Roman  Governor,  the  one  man  in  Asia  who 


CHAPTEB  II.   12-17  85 

had  what  the  Eomans  called  the  jus  gladii,  the 
power  of  the  sword,  the  power  of  life  and  death. 
It  was  to  Pergamum,  therefore,  that  prisoners 
were  taken,  including  such  as  were  accused  of 
being  Christians,  in  order  that  they  might 
undergo  the  sentence  and  suffering  of  death. 
The  message  to  Pergamum  comes,  therefore, 
from  the  one,  "  who  hath  the  sharp  two-edged 
sword,"  to  indicate  the  fact  that  behind  the 
Koman  Governor  and  above  him,  is  One  w^hose 
authority  is  mightier  still,  by  whose  will  princes 
do  govern,  and  to  whom  even  the  tyrants  of 
the  earth  are  responsible.  By  this  phrase  the 
trembling  Church  of  Pergamum  is  bidden  to 
look  past  the  threatening  world-power,  and  to 
fix  its  gaze  on  the  King  of  kings,  who  is  "  mighty 
to  save." 

In  like  manner  the  description  of  the  Church 
as  dwelling  "  where  Satan's  throne  is  "  conveys 
an  allusion  to  the  prevailing  cult  of  the  Emperor. 
This  had  reached  its  climax  in  the  reign  of 
Domitian,  within  which  these  letters  were  prob- 
ably written.  It  was  Domitian  who  insisted  on 
being  addressed  by  his  subjects  as  '*  our  Lord  and 
God,"  and  at  the  same  time  the  Provincial 
government  had  discovered  the  value  for  its 
own  purposes  of  fostering  and  extending  this 
monstrous  worship  of  a  man.  By  its  means 
they  obtained  a  new  and  very  effective  instru^ 


86        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

ment  for  controlling  their  subject  races.  They 
skilfully  identified  submission  to  the  civil  power 
with  religion,  and  made  conformity  to  the  ritual 
a  test  of  loyalty  to  the  State.  The  heathen 
subjects  of  Kome  found  no  difficulty  in  enlarging 
their  Pantheon  to  include  another  god,  in  paying 
their  dues  in  the  temple  of  the  Emperor  as  well 
as  in  those  of  Diana  or  ^sculapius.  Some  Jews 
also  appear  to  have  conformed  or  compromised 
in  this  matter ;  at  any  rate  there  is  no  record 
of  their  suffering  persecution  because  they  refused 
the  worship  of  the  Emperor.  And  here  is  at 
least  a  possible  explanation  of  the  contemptuous 
indignation  of  the  Apostle  against  "  those  who 
say  they  are  Jews  and  are  not."  It  would  be 
as  open  a  denial  of  their  faith  in  Jehovah  for 
them  to  offer  incense  in  these  temples  as  it  was 
for  the  Christians  a  denial  of  their  faith  in  God, 
the  Father  of  their  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  But  for 
the  Christians  the  stereotyping  of  this  Emperor- 
worship  into  an  instrument  of  government,  and 
a  test  of  loyalty,  created  at  once  a  situation  of  the 
keenest  trial.  They  who  were  probably  the  most 
law-abiding  of  all  the  subjects  of  Kome,  found 
themselves  liable  to  be  branded  as  traitors  and 
enemies  of  the  State,  if  they  were  not  prepared 
to  make  public  denial  of  their  Lord.  How  much 
comfort  there  was,  therefore,  in  the  opening  words 
of  this  salutation,  "  I  know  where  thou  dwellest." 


CHAPTEE  II.   12-17  87 

Nothing  in  their  circumstances  or  situation  was 
hidden  from  their  Lord,  nothing  of  the  daily 
bitterness  of  life,  nothing  of  the  daily  struggle  to 
remain  loyal  to  Him. 

It  is  still  the  fortune  of  many  of  Christ's  people 
to  dwell  where  Satan  is  enthroned.  It  may  be  in 
the  midst  of  the  great  city,  where  large  sections 
of  the  population  are  more  or  less  openly  the 
servants  of  sin,  more  or  less  openly  defiant  of 
God.  Or  it  may  be  within  a  narrower  circle 
that  men  dwell,  among  fellow- workers,  or  in  a 
society,  or  even  in  a  family,  where  God  is  for- 
gotten, and  the  world  is  worshipped,  where 
loyalty  to  Christ  is  interpreted  as  disloyalty  to 
the  conventions  of  men,  or  the  unwritten  code 
of  social  intercourse.  To  His  faithful  servants 
in  such  circumstances  the  same  voice  comes 
from  the  same  Saviour:  "I  know  where  thou 
dwellest,  that  thou  boldest  fast  my  name." 

But,  even  as  we  hearken  to  catch  these  words 
of  comfort,  and  assurance  that  we  are  not  alone 
or  forgotten  in  the  midst  of  the  conflict,  that 
greater  is  He  that  is  for  us  than  they  that  are 
against  us,  we  must  be  prepared  to  hear  the 
same  voice  challenging  our  want  of  single- 
minded  loyalty  to  the  Lord's  ideal,  "  I  have  a 
few  things  against  thee."  The  shortcomings  of 
the  Church  at  Pergamum  were  connected  with 
the  presence  within  the  community  of  certain 


88        THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

false  teachers  whose  teaching  is  again  referred 
to  and  more  fully  described  in  the  letter  to 
Thyatira.  Reserving,  therefore,  a  closer  exami- 
nation of  its  character,  let  it  suffice  to  observe 
now  that  this  teaching  was  evidently  of  the 
nature  of  an  attack  upon  the  obligation  of 
morality,  an  encouragement  to  men  to  use  the 
liberty  wherewith  Christ  had  made  them  free  as 
an  occasion  for  licence  and  lust ;  and  further, 
that  while  at  Ephesus  this  teaching  was  firmly 
repudiated,  and  in  the  Church  at  Smyrna,  poor 
in  this  world's  goods  but  rich  in  faith,  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  trace  of  it,  in  Pergamum 
this  teaching  had  received  at  least  some  hospi- 
tahty,  while  in  Thyatira  it  had  spread  to  a 
dangerous  extent. 

But  w^hether  the  lapse  is  small  or  great, 
whether  the  things  which  Christ  has  against 
us  are  few  or  many,  the  summons  of  His  Spirit 
is  ever  the  same,  "  Eepent."  Change  your  mind 
about  the  thing  which  has  drawn  you  from  His 
side.  You  were  enticed  by  it  because  it  had  a 
specious  attractiveness.  See  it  now  as  it  is,  in  all 
its  triviality,  contemptible,  mean,  or  disgraceful, 
imperilling  your  higher  life.  See  it  as  it  is,  the 
thing  you  have  loved  and  lusted  after ;  and  hate 
it,  with  something  like  Christ's  hatred  of  evil. 
That  is  what  it  is  to  repent,  and  that  is  the 
beginning  of  final  victory. 


CHAPTEE  II.   12-17  89 

"  To  him  that  overcometh  "  our  Lord  in  this 
letter  promises  that  He  will  give  *'  the  hidden 
manna  and  a  white  stone,  and  upon  the  stone 
a  new  name  written."  In  trying  to  discover  the 
meaning  of  this  double  promise  there  is  one 
thing  to  be  chiefly  borne  in  mind,  namely,  that 
the  meaning  of  the  symbolism  must  have  been 
perfectly  plain  to  those  for  w^hom  this  letter  was 
prepared.  It  is  in  the  circle  of  their  ideas  and 
not  of  ours  that  w^e  are  to  find  the  clue.  And 
each  part  of  the  twofold  promise  appears  to  have 
had  a  different  section  of  the  Church  in  view. 
Some  of  the  Christians  at  Pergamum  had  been 
Jews,  and  the  clue  to  the  meaning  of  the  "  hidden 
manna  "  is  found  in  the  circle  of  ideas  charac- 
teristic of  later  Judaism.  It  had  been  recorded 
in  the  book  of  Exodus  that  Aaron  received  a 
command  to  take  of  the  manna  before  it  ceased 
to  fall,  and  "  lay  it  up  "  in  a  pot  or  basket  "  before 
the  Lord  "  by  placing  it  before  **  the  Testimony." 
In  after-times  this  was  understood  to  mean  with- 
in the  Ark  of  the  Testimony.  And  one  of  the 
favourite  legends  of  post-exilic  Judaism  was  to 
the  effect  that  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem the  prophet  Jeremiah  had  been  instructed 
to  remove  the  Ark,  with  its  contents,  to  a  place 
of  safety,  and  that  he  had  carried  it  off  and  con- 
cealed it  in  a  cave  of  Mount  Sinai.  Round  this 
hidden  Ark,  and  the  manna  hidden  with  it,  the 


90        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

fancy  of  the  Eabbis  played  exuberantly ;  and, 
amongst  other  things,  they  averred  that  when 
the  long-expected  Messiah  came  the  Ark  and 
its  contents  would  be  discovered  and  restored  to 
the  holy  city,  or,  otherwise,  that  manna,  which 
by  this  time  they  had  come  to  think  of  as  hidden 
in  heaven,  would  descend  again  from  above.  It  was 
to  be  one  of  the  glorious  privileges  of  Messiah's 
reign  that  His  people  would  be  fed  on  manna. 
A  pious  Jew,  therefore,  who  had  been  nurtured 
not  only  on  the  Old  Testament,  but  also  on  these 
later  fantasies,  would  naturally  include  this  among 
his  anticipations  of  that  golden  age,  that  he  and 
his  fellow-Jews  would  partake  of  the  manna 
which  had  so  long  been  hidden.  It  is  for  such 
that  this  part  of  the  promise  is  specially  adapted. 
Christ  always  speaks  to  men  in  the  language  that 
they  understand ;  and  here  He  adopts  the  form  of 
Jewish  anticipation  into  which  He  has  taught 
them  to  put  higher  and  truer  contents. 

In  order  that  men  of  other  ages  and  other 
modes  of  thought  may  understand  it  too.  He  has 
given  us  a  key  and  the  power  to  use  it.  The  key 
is  in  St.  John's  Gospel :  "  Your  fathers  did  eat 
the  manna  in  the  wilderness,  and  they  died. 
This  is  the  bread  which  cometh  down  out  of 
heaven,  that  a  man  may  eat  thereof,  and  not  die. 
I  am  the  living  bread,  which  came  down  out  of 
heaven.'*    Applying  this  key,  we  recognise  that 


CHAPTEE  II.   12-17  91 

what  our  Lord  promises  to  give  "to  him  that 
overcometh "  is  Himself,  and  in  Himself  the 
God-sent  satisfaction  of  the  human  heart  in  all 
its  cravings  for  light  and  love.  He  is  the  hidden 
manna.  And  v^ere  any  one  to  ask,  Why,  then,  did 
He  not  say  so  plainly?  he  misses  the  exquisite 
tenderness  of  self-adaptation  which  is  shown  in 
the  very  form  of  the  promise,  adaptation  even  to 
the  crude  and  blundering  notions  of  the  common 
folk,  who  had  been  Jews  but  now  were  Christians. 
Christ  is  seen  once  more  clothing  Himself  in 
human  form,  this  time  in  the  form  of  human 
thought,  for  the  same  purpose  as  at  the  beginning, 
that  He  might  give  Himself  to  men. 

If,  as  seems  most  probable,  this  is  the  true 
explanation  of  the  first  half  of  the  promise,  we 
shall  not  find  it  difficult  to  see  in  the  second  half 
an  extension  of  the  same  principle.  Here  our 
Lord  condescends  to  a  yet  lower  circle  of  ideas, 
attaches  His  thought  to  the  common  speech  of 
men  who  had  been  not  Jews  but  Gentile 
**  heathen  "  ere  they  became  Christians,  and  by 
its  means  speaks  home  to  their  hearts  thoughts 
of  eternal  truth. 

The  white  stone  with  a  new  name  has  provided 
a  great  problem  for  all  the  commentators,  and 
the  explanations  which  have  been  advanced  are 
very  numerous.  The  origin  of  the  symbol  has 
been  sought  in  many  directions,  in  the  Urim  and 


92        THE  BOOK  OF  BEVELATION 

Thummim  of  the  Jewish  High  Priest,  on  the 
stones  of  which  names  were  inscribed,  in  the 
white  pebbles  with  which  the  Greek  jurors  gave 
a  vote  for  acquittal,  in  the  tablet  or  plaque 
inscribed  with  a  password  which  gave  admittance 
to  an  assembly  or  banquet.  But  none  of  these 
gives  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  name. 
Once  more  we  must  look  for  light  in  the  circle  of 
popular  religious  ideas,  but  in  this  case,  not  in 
Judaism,  but  in  the  region  where  Judaism  and 
Paganism  mingled.  There  we  find  first  of  all  the 
habit  of  attaching  mystical  and  even  magical 
significance  to  secret  names.  The  knowledge  and 
use  of  these  conferred,  according  to  a  widespread 
superstition,  tremendous  power  over  Nature  or 
unseen  spirits.  And  we  find,  moreover,  in  the 
same  quarter  a  particular  application  of  such 
secret  names.  They  were  regarded  as  passwords, 
the  utterance  of  which  would  secure  the  admission 
of  the  soul  into  one  after  another  of  the  succes- 
sive heavens  through  which  it  was  to  ascend  to 
perfect  bliss. 

There  was  already  in  vogue  at  the  end  of  the 
first  century  a  system  of  thought  which  took  the 
place  of  religion,  produced  by  a  commingling  of 
Judaic  and  Hellenic  ideas,  in  which  this  super- 
stition connected  with  names  of  power  played  a 
great  part.  This  "  Gnosticism,"  as  it  is  called, 
is  of  great  importance  in  relation  to   the  early 


CHAPTEE  II.   12-17  93 

Church.  And  Gnosticism  from  the  practical  point 
of  view  was  just  a  securely  patented  method  of 
obtaining  salvation  by  learning  the  various  pass- 
w^ords  or  names  of  power  by  means  of  which  the 
ascending  spirit  could  make  sure  of  entrance  into 
one  heaven  after  another.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  ideas  such  as  these  had  formed  part  of  the 
religious  furnishing  of  many  minds  in  Pergamum, 
some  of  whom  had  found  a  simpler  and  a  surer 
salvation  in  Christ.  Another  line  of  explanation 
is  suggested  by  the  inscriptions  quite  recently 
discovered  in  Asia  Minor  by  Professor  Eamsay. 
They  throw  light  upon  the  subject  of  **  Tekmoreian 
guest-friends,"  a  guild  or  society  the  existence  of 
which  had  been  revealed  by  earlier  inscriptions. 
The  "  Tekmor  "  proves  to  have  been  not,  as  was 
formerly  supposed,  a  name  derived  from  a  locality, 
but  a  secret  password,  or  sign  of  membership, 
which  secured  entrance  to  the  banquets  of  the 
guild.  Professor  Eamsay  is  inchned  to  see  in 
this  something  which  throws  new  light  upon  ''  the 
mark  of  the  beast,"  and  its  use  in  "  exclusive 
trading."  But  it  is  also  possible  that  a  reference 
to  the  same  password  or  sign  underlies  the 
promise  here.  Whether  the  name  were  a  name 
of  power  to  be  applied  to  religious  purposes,  or  a 
password  admitting  to  social  privileges,  it  w^ould 
be  quite  natural  that  the  word  should  be  inscribed 
upon  a  stone  or  plaque.      In   either  case  the 


94        THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

possession  of  the  name  would  be  understood  to 
confer  great  privileges  upon  the  man  who  received 
it.  In  connecting  His  promise  with  one  or  other 
of  these  popular  ideas  our  Lord  once  more  clothes 
His  own  great  gift  in  forms  understanded  of  the 
people,  and  thereby  contrasts  the  false  with  the 
true.  Did  others  offer  to  teach  mystic  signs 
securing  access  to  social  privileges,  He  would 
give  to  His  true  followers  access  to  the  marriage- 
supper  of  the  Lamb.  Did  others  speak  of  pass- 
words giving  a  right  to  enter  heaven,  He  would 
give  to  him  that  overcometh  a  surer  password 
for  entrance  to  a  truer  heaven.  Did  others 
promise  to  communicate  the  mighty  names  which 
caused  closed  portals  to  fly  back,  He  would 
put  in  His  faithful  servant's  heart  the  name  that 
is  above  every  name,  the  name  at  which  every 
knee  must  bow,  of  things  in  heaven  and  things 
on  earth  and  things  under  the  earth.  Was  the 
availing  name,  which  once  they  had  longed  to 
find,  a  name  which  each  man  should  have  for 
himself,  then  Christ  would  give  to  him  a  "new 
name"  in  the  deep  sense  of  the  Bible,  a  new 
nature,  the  real  key  to  the  real  heaven. 

Such  appear  to  be  the  clues  to  the  true  mean- 
ing of  this  promise,  and  such  a  foreshadowing  at 
least  of  its  interpretation.  If  this  be  so,  we  have 
a  striking  illustration  of  God's  method  of  dealing 
with  the  human  mind.    He  does  not  stand  over 


CHAPTEK  II.   12-17  95 

against  His  children  with  a  complete  system  of 
pure  truth,  which  they  must  rise  to,  or  otherwise 
accept,  before  they  can  enter  into  fellowship  with 
Him.  He  incarnates  Himself  in  human  thought, 
as  He  was  once  incarnate  in  human  flesh,  and 
for  the  same  purpose,  that  He  may  purify  it, 
sanctify  it,  lead  it  on  to  truer  truth.  As  He  took 
certain  institutions,  such  as  sacrifice,  marriage, 
the  Sabbath,  and  brought  them  under  the  sanc- 
tion of  His  command,  purified  them,  made  them 
witnesses  and  interpreters  of  higher  things;  as 
He  took  ideas  that  belonged  originally  to  what 
we  call  natural  religion,  such  as  Divine  Father- 
hood, immortality,  retribution,  and  by  the  power 
of  His  Spirit  working  in  men  elevated  them  into 
intense  spiritual  convictions,  speaking  all  the 
time  to  men  in  language  they  could  understand, 
so  He  spoke  to  the  Church  at  Pergamum  in  terms 
of  religious  ideas  which  were  already  transcended ; 
and  so  He  speaks  to  us,  "  having  many  things  to 
say,  which  we  cannot  yet  bear,"  in  the  language 
of  to-day's  needs,  of  to-day's  philosophy,  of  to- 
day's religion,  but  ever  summons  us  to  press 
through  these  veils  in  order  to  find  the  one  un- 
changing Christ,  that  when  we  have  finally 
pressed  through  the  last  veil,  the  flesh,  we  may 
find,  and  find  for  ever,  the  unchanging  God. 

This  great  promise  waits  till  then  for  its  final 
fulfilment ;    but  it  is  made,  like  all  the  corre- 


96        THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

spending  promises  in  these  letters,  not  merely  to 
him  that  has  finally  overcome,  but  "  to  him  that 
overcometh."  For  Christ's  faithful  servant  there 
are  many  preliminary  victories,  and  to  each  of 
them  is  attached  its  meed  of  reward — reward  in 
this  sort,  sustenance  and  progress  and  power. 
As  to  Christ  Himself,  when  in  the  wilderness  He 
had  overcome,  so  to  His  followers  faithful  though 
forespent  come  after  their  struggles  the  Ministers 
of  His  Grace,  to  bestow  the  hidden  manna,  Christ 
the  Food  and  Medicine  of  the  soul,  and  the 
restored  courage  of  a  new  name — the  name  in 
which  He  causeth  us  to  triumph.  To  him  that 
overcometh,  as  he  overcomes,  to-day,  to-morrow, 
aad  all  the  days  is  this  promise  made  good. 


THE  LETTEE  TO  THE  CHURCH  AT 
THYATIRA 

Kev.  ii.  18-29 

These  things  saitli  the  Son  of  God,  who  hath  his  eyes  Wke 
aflame  of  fire,  and  his  feet  are  like  unto  hitrnished  brass  : 
I  Jmoio  thy  worJcs,and  thy  love  and  faith  and  ministry  and 
patience,  and  that  thy  last  worlds  are  tnore  thari  the  first. 
But  I  have  this  against  thee,  that  thou  sufferest  the  tvoman 
Jezebel,  which  calleth  herself  a  prophetess;  and  she  teacheth 
and  seduceth  my  servants  to  com^nit  fornication,  and  to  eat 
things  sacrificed  to  idols.  And  I  gave  her  time  that  she 
should  repent ;  and  she  will  not  rex^ent  of  her  for7iication. 
Behold,  I  do  cast  her  into  a  bed,  and  them  that  comtnit 
adultery  with  her  uito  great  tribulation,  exceiit  they  repent 
of  her  works.  And  I  tvill  kill  her  children  with  death; 
and  all  the  churches  shall  knoiv  that  I  am,  he  which 
searcheth  the  reins  and  hearts  :  and  I  will  give  unto  each 
one  of  you  according  to  your  works.  But  to  you  I  say,  to 
the  rest  that  are  in  Thyatira,  as  many  as  have  not  this 
teaching,  which  know  not  the  deep  things  of  Satan,  as  they 
say ;  I  cast  upon  you  none  other  burden.  Howbeit,  that 
which  ye  have,  hold  fast  till  I  come.  And  he  that  over- 
cometh,  and  he  that  keepeth  my  works  unto  the  end,  to  him, 
will  I  give  authority  over  the  nations  :  and  he  shall  rule 
them  with  a  rod  of  iron,  as  the  vessels  of  the  potter  are 
broken  to  shivers  ;  as  I  also  have  received  of  my  Father : 
and  I  will  give  him  the  morning  star.  He  that  hath  an 
ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  unto  the  churches 
(R,F.). 

8  97 


98         THE   BOOK   OF   REVELATION 

The  letters  to  the  Churches  up  to  this  point 
have  revealed  a  condition  of  affairs  which  is,  on 
the  whole,  satisfactory.  Ephesus  has  cooled 
somewhat  from  her  first  enthusiasm,  but  cannot 
tolerate  "the  works  of  the  Nicolaitans."  Smyrna 
is  protected  by  her  poverty  from  many  of  the- 
temptations  which  beset  her  neighbours.  Per- 
gamum  has  tolerated  the  presence  of  some  "  that 
hold  the  teaching  of  Balaam,"  and  also  of  some 
"  that  hold  the  teaching  of  the  Nicolaitans,"  but 
still  holds  fast  the  Name,  and  does  not  deny  the 
faith.  At  Thyatira  we  find  a  Church  which  along 
with  much  faithfulness  and  energy  of  service  is 
more  seriously  infected  with  false  teaching — a 
Church  in  which  one  of  the  actual  teachers  of 
falsehood  occupies  an  acknowledged  and  honoured 
position.  It  is  in  harmony  with  this  situation 
that  the  tone  of  this  letter  is  distinctly  different 
from  that  of  the  others,  more  vigorous  and 
authoritative,  more  threatening  in  reference  to 
the  unrepentant,  more  eloquent  in  regard  to  the 
victorious. 

The  town  of  Thyatira  itself  was  one  of  little 
importance  in  comparison  with  those  which  have 
gone  before.  It  would,  indeed,  have  little  or  no 
place  in  history  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  this 
letter  was  addressed  to  the  Christian  Church 
there.  It  was  situated  about  a  day's  journey  to 
the    south-east   from   Pergamum,   on    the    road 


CHAPTEE   II.    18-29  99 

which  would  naturally  be  taken  by  a  messenger 
passing  thence  to  Sardis.  With  no  great  natural 
advantages  of  position,  and  no  famous  history  in 
the  past,  it  was  ''probably  the  smallest  and 
feeblest,  certainly  in  general  estimation  the  least 
distinguished  and  famous,  of  all  the  seven  cities." 
"  The  local  surroundings  of  Thyatira  accentuate 
this  comparatively  humble  character  of  its 
fortunes.  It  lies  in  the  middle  of  a  long  valley 
between  parallel  ridges  of  hills  of  no  great  eleva- 
tion, which  rise  with  gentle  slope  from  the  valley. 
Thus  there  is  a  most  marked  contrast  between  the 
situation  of  Thyatira  and  the  proud  and  lofty 
acropolis  of  Sardis,  or  the  huge  hill  of  Pergamum, 
or  the  mountain  walls  of  Ephesus,  and  the  castled 
hill  of  Smyrna,  each  with  its  harbour,  or  the  long 
sloping  hillside  on  which  Philadelphia  rises  high 
above  its  plain,  or  the  plateau  of  Laodicea."  *  And 
yet  so  independent  is  the  Divine  mind  of  such 
material  limitations,  that  it  is  to  this  comparatively 
obscure  and  historically  unimportant  community 
that  the  risen  Lord  describes  Himself  in  terms  of 
the  most  exalted  majesty,  and  conveys  a  promise 
of  the  most  exalted  power  :  "  These  things  saith 
the  Son  of  God,  who  hath  his  eyes  like  a  flame 
of  fire,  and  his  feet  are  like  unto  burnished  brass." 
The  two  last  phrases  in  the  description  are  taken 
from  the  general  portrayal  of  the  Son  of  Man  in 
""'''  Ramsay,  loc,  cit.,  p.  32. 


100      THE   BOOK   OF   REVELATION 

the  first  chapter,  and  are  selected  doubtless 
because  it  is  the  eyes  searching  like  a  flame  which 
detect  the  evil  at  work  in  the  life  of  the  Church, 
and  the  feet  as  of  a  mail-shod  warrior,  which  may 
be  used  to  crush  obstinate  resistance  to  the  truth. 
But  in  the  opening  phrase  this  description  goes 
beyond  anything  that  has  yet  been  enunciated 
concerning  the  Son  of  Man,  and  openly  declares 
that  which,  though  it  could  not  fail  to  be  inferred, 
has  remained  until  now  a  matter  of  inference. 
To  this  Church  the  Speaker  presents  Himself  in 
all  the  fulness  of  His  majesty :  "  Thus  saith  the 
Son  of  God."  Neither  does  He  hesitate  to  claim 
in  the  body  of  the  letter  yet  another  power  which, 
according  to  the  evidence  of  the  Old  Testament, 
was  a  peculiar  attribute  of  the  Almighty  :  "1  am 
he  which  searcheth  the  reins  and  hearts."  And 
this  revelation  comes  through  the  mind  of  a  man 
who  had  every  national  and  hereditary  reason  for 
doubting  and  rejecting  it.  At  whatever  time  in 
the  first  century  these  letters  were  written, 
whether  at  the  end  or  soon  after  the  middle,  it  is 
most  significant  that  a  monotheistic  Jew  should 
thus  raise  the  Jesus  whom  he  had  known  to  the 
plane  of  God.  It  is  evidence,  all  the  more 
remarkable  because  indirect,  of  the  impression 
capable  of  producing  nothing  less  than  a  revolu- 
tion of  thought,  which  was  made  by  Jesus  on  His 
disciples.    Such  an  impression  when  once  admitted 


CHAPTEK  II.   18-29  101 

not  only  leaves  room  for,  but  actually  demands, 
something  corresponding  to  the  words  and  the 
deeds  recorded  in  the  Gospels  in  order  to  account 
for  it. 

The  praise  accorded  to  this  Church  is  once 
more  hearty  and  appreciative.  It  specifies  even 
more  than  is  acknowledged  of  good  in  Ephesus. 
There  it  was  the  Church's  ''toil  and  patience." 
Here  it  is  its  '*  love  and  faith,  ministry  and 
patience."  It  may  be  that  the  *'  love  and  faith  " 
are  to  be  understood  as  shown  toward  God,  but 
more  probably  it  is  love  on  the  part  of  the 
Christians  toward  one  another,  and  good  faith, 
honour,  and  mutual  loyalty  between  the  members 
of  the  Church.  It  is  a  noble  record  of  any  con- 
gregation that  God  sees  these  things  manifested 
in  their  common  life,  mutual  love  and  loyalty, 
mutual  service,  and  common  steadfastness  in 
bearing  the  opposition  of  the  world.  Where  such 
fruits  are  manifested  love  and  faith  toward  God 
cannot  be  wanting.  And  Thyatira  goes  beyond 
Ephesus  in  this  also,  that  there  the  good  work  ad- 
vances.   ''  Thy  last  works  are  more  than  the  first." 

Wherein,  then,  does  this  Church,  fruitful  as  it 
is  in  the  works  of  the  Spirit,  give  cause  for 
criticism  and  incur  reproach?  The  criticism  is 
in  this  case  directed  against  the  tolerated  pre- 
sence, in  unusual  activity  and  effectiveness,  of 
that  false  teaching  which,  though  not  unknown 


102      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

in  Ephesus  and  Pergamum,  was  by  them  resisted 
and  rejected.  At  Thyatira  this  false  teaching 
was  connected  with  the  influence  of  a  woman,  a 
prophetess,  to  whom  the  symbolical  name  of 
Jezebel  is  given,  to  mark  the  fact  that  she  sought 
to  lead  the  Church  astray,  even  as  Jezebel,  in  the 
Old  Testament,  encouraged  Ahab  in  wickedness. 
In  calling  herself  a  "prophetess,"  this  woman 
claimed  to  belong  to  a  recognised  class  of 
authorities  in  the  primitive  Church.  The  in- 
fluence of  these  Christian  ''prophets"  was  only 
second,  if  indeed  it  was  second,  to  that  of  the 
**  apostles."  Their  claim  to  be  heard  rested 
upon  their  possession  of  ''  the  gifts  of  the  Spirit." 
There  was  constant  necessity  for  each  congre- 
gation to  ''try  the  Spirits,"  to  exercise  their 
judgment  in  detecting  false  teaching  which 
might  be  put  forward  by  such  teachers.  They 
were  most  prominent  in  the  assemblies  for  wor- 
ship at  a  time  when  there  was  no  regularly 
constituted  local  ministry,  and  so  long  as  their 
claim  to  speak  in  the  "spirit  of  prophecy"  was 
admitted,  their  teaching  would  be  received 
without  demur.  But  as  of  old  in  Israel  the 
responsibility  of  private  judgment  was  thrown 
upon  the  people,  and  they  were  summoned  to 
detect  the  falsity  of  a  prophet  if  he  sought  to  lead 
them  astray  from  God,*  so  these  Christians  were 
'■'^  See  Deut.  xiii.  1-3. 


CHAPTEK  II.   18-29  103 

expected   to   discover  the  false  prophet  or  pro- 
phetess, however  specious  his  or  her  credentials. 

The  question  as  to  the  exact  nature  of  the  false 
teaching  which  had  thus  invaded  Thyatira  and 
other  communities  is  one  of  great  difficulty.  In 
the  letter  to  Pergamum  it  is  paralleled  with  "  the 
doctrine  of  Balaam,  who  taught  Balak  to  cast  a 
stumbling-block  before  the  children  of  Israel,  to 
eat  things  sacrificed  unto  idols,  and  to  commit 
fornication."  The  analogy  with  the  conduct  of 
Balaam  applies  historically  to  the  second  of  these 
charges  only.  The  combination  of  the  two 
belongs  to  a  much  later  period,  to  the  contro- 
versy which  was  settled  by  the  '*  Council  of 
Jerusalem."  By  the  decision  of  that  Council, 
of  which  we  have  an  account  in  Acts  xv.,  these 
two  things  were  absolutely  prohibited  to  all 
Christians.  And  the  phrase  in  verse  25  ('*  I  cast 
upon  you  none  other  burden")  being  apparently 
an  echo  from  the  finding  on  that  occasion, 
there  seems  to  be  a  direct  allusion  to  this  con- 
troversy. 

The  question  of  ''  meat  offered  to  idols  "  was 
still  causing  considerable  difficulty  when  St.  Paul 
wrote  his  letter  to  the  Eomans,  and  had  opened 
up  subsidiary  questions  which  were  not  covered 
by  the  settlement  arrived  at  by  the  Council. 
They  were  questions  of  the  most  troublesome 
kind,  because  they  took  concrete    form  in   the 


104      THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

home  life  of  the  Christians  and  the  social  life  of 
every  day.  There  might  be  no  hesitation  as  to 
the  duty  of  a  Christian  who  was  aware  that  the 
meat  before  him  had  formed  part  of  an  idolatrous 
sacrifice  ;  but  how  far  was  he  bound  to  ascertain 
in  every  case  and  in  all  circumstances  whether  it 
was  so?  St.  Paul  met  the  situation  with  masterly 
common  sense:  *'He  that  doubteth  is  condemned." 
And  were  this  the  only  feature  by  which  the  false 
teaching  of  "  Jezebel  "  is  characterised,  it  might 
be  possible  to  see  here  the  protest  of  an  austerer 
spirit  against  what  some  might  regard  as  culpable 
laxity,  while  others  saw  in  it  only  a  just  assertion 
of  Christian  liberty.  The  latter  might  use  the 
arguments,  and  appeal  to  the  authority  of  Paul, 
in  defence  of  a  line  of  conduct  which  the  former 
might  abhor  as  a  weak  and  cowardly  compro- 
mise. On  such  a  question,  did  it  stand  alone, 
there  might  well  be  two  parties,  holding  with 
equal  honesty  to  the  letter  of  the  precept,  but 
following  and  recommending  very  divergent 
applications  of  it  in  practice. 

But  the  reference  to  "meat  offered  to  idols" 
does  not  stand  alone.  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  precise  teaching  of  "  Jezebel  "  and  her  fol- 
lowers on  this  subject,  it  was  conjoined  with 
serious  laxity  of  opinion  and  teaching  upon  a 
question  regarding  which  the  Church  had  never 
hesitated,  on  which  there  could  be  no   debate. 


CHAPTEE  II.   18-29  105 

And  the  allusion  to  Balaam  and  his  plan  to 
seduce  the  children  of  Israel,  as  well  as  other 
language  used  in  the  letter,  certainly  throws 
the  emphasis  on  this  second  charge,  the  charge 
of  encouraging  or  extenuating  licentiousness. 
Neither  is  the  collocation  of  the  two  subjects 
without  its  reason  in  the  practices  of  corrupt 
Paganism.  The  heathen  temples  were  notoriously 
at  one  and  the  same  time  the  scene  of  sacrifice 
offered  to  idols,  and  the  home  of  authorised 
impurity.  There  may  well  have  been  Christian 
converts  in  the  Church  at  Thyatira  for  whom  in 
earher  days  idolatrous  sacrifice  and  gross  immo- 
rality had  been  concomitant.  They  had  been 
delivered  from  both  these  things  at  one  stroke 
through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  this 
inherent  relation  between  idolatry  and  impurity 
which  the  Church  had  recognised  in  placing  the 
eating  of  meat  sacrificed  to  idols  and  fornication 
under  an  equal  ban.  And  the  vehemence  with 
which  "  Jezebel  "  and  her  party  are  here  assailed 
requires  no  further  explanation,  if  we  understand 
that  they  Avere  a  party  who  countenanced  or 
advocated  any  compromise  with  heathenism  and 
the  lusts  of  the  flesh  in  this  direction. 

Later  writings  in  the  New  Testament  testify 
to  the  presence  of  the  same  false  teaching  in  the 
Church,  and  to  the  extent  of  the  danger  which  it 
involved.     Thus  in  the  Epistle  of  Jude  we  read 


106       THE   BOOK   OF   EEVELATION 

how  "  there  are  certain  men  crept  in  privily,  .  .  . 
turning  the  grace  of  our  God  into  lasciviousness, 
and  denying  our  only  Master  and  Lord,  Jesus 
Christ."  The  Old  Testament  parallel  on  which 
Jude  enlarges  is  that  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah, 
which  "in  like  manner  with  these  gave  them- 
selves over  to  fornication  "  ;  but  he  also  has 
Balaam  in  mind:  "  Woe  unto  them !  for  they  .  .  . 
ran  riotously  in  the  error  of  Balaam  for  hire." 
The  parallel  passage  in  2  Peter  *  is  still  more 
explicit,  and  even  more  sweeping  in  its  denuncia- 
tion of  the  Antinomian  teaching  within  the 
Church.  And  again  this  false  teaching  is  con- 
nected with  the  example  of  Balaam.  It  is  plain 
that  the  "  destructive  heresies  "  which  were 
privily  brought  in  were  not  connected  with 
dogma  so  much  as  with  practice  ;  and  their 
character  as  pressing  the  doctrine  of  Christian 
liberty  to  the  Antinomian  extreme  of  licentious- 
ness is  only  too  plain.  "  Forsaking  the  right  way, 
they  went  astray,  having  followed  the  way  of 
Balaam,  the  son  of  Beor,  who  loved  the  hire  of 
wrong- doing."  For  they  entice  "those  who  are 
just  escaping  from  them  that  live  in  error ;  pro- 
mising them  liberty,  while  they  themselves  are 
bondservants  of  corruption."  A  comparison  of 
these  and  other  passages  shows  that  those  who 
were  carrying  the  ideal  of  Christian  life  in  their 
■•■-  2  Peter  ii. 


CHAPTEE  II.   18-29  107 

hearts  perceived  a  very  real  danger  lest  a  consider- 
able section  of  the  young  converts  to  Christianity 
should  be  seduced  by  false  teaching  of  this  kind 
back  into  **  the  corruption  v^^hich  is  in  the  v^orld 
through  lust."  And  no  further  explanation  is 
necessary  of  the  burning  indignation  vi^ith  v^hich 
these  passages  are  undoubtedly  inspired,  or  of  the 
gravity  with  which  the  beginnings  of  such  teach- 
ing are  regarded  in  the  letters  to  the  Churches. 

The  possibihty  that  teaching  of  this  kind  could  be 
held  and  inculcated  even  by  those  who  were  within 
the  Church  and  at  the  outset  meant  no  evil,  is 
only  too  abundantly  illustrated  in  the  pages  of 
history.  Antinomianism  was,  and  is,  a  very  real 
danger,  especially  in  young  communities  and 
among  enthusiastic  converts.  The  apostolic 
declaration,  "  He  that  is  born  of  God  cannot 
sin,"  has  been  too  often  interpreted  to  mean, 
"  Such  an  one  may  do  what  he  likes  ;  it  is  not 
sin."  To  us,  who  have  been  trained  for  genera- 
tions in  a  sense  of  true  morality,  such  a  doctrine 
is  utterly  abhorrent ;  and  to  us  lacking,  as  we  too 
often  are,  in  the  fresh  enthusiasm  of  experienced 
redemption,  the  danger  is  remote  that  we  should 
be  snared  by  it.  But  the  danger  was  both  near 
and  serious  among  this  excitable  people  of  Asia 
Minor,  accustomed  to  go  to  great  extremes  in  all 
religious  matters.  It  was  not  for  nothing  that 
St.  Paul  had  argued  the  question,  **  What  then? 


108      THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

Shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may  abound?" 
The  simplest  way  of  accounting  for  the  severity 
with  which  these  false  teachers,  and  especially 
this  prophetess  of  Thyatira,  are  denounced,  is  to 
suppose  that  they  actually  taught  that  as  Justified 
by  Christ  they  were  free  from  the  obligation  of 
the  moral  law.* 

At  the  same  time  Professor  Eamsay  is  doubt- 
less right,  as  he  is  certainly  extremely  interesting, 
when  he  points  out  that  these  Churches  of  the 
early  time  were  faced  by  a  number  of  problems 
of  conduct  in  daily  life,  in  which  it  was  extremely 
difficult  to  decide  how  a  Christian  should  act ;  and 
that  there  was  probably  a  party  within  them 
which,  without  inculcating  any  such  open  breach 
with  morality,   favoured   a  line   of  compromise 

*  I  find  this  view  of  "  the  false  teaching  "  described  as  the 
doctrine  of  Balaam  confirmed  by  Johannes  Weiss  in  his 
recent  valuable  study  of  the  Revelation.  He  is  inchned  to 
accept  the  reading  which  makes  Jezebel  the  wife  of  the 
"  angel,"  that  is,  *'  the  leader  of  the  congregation." 
' '  Whether  '  Jezebel '  is  the  typical  or  the  actual  name  of 
the  woman,  may  remain  unsettled.  In  any  case  she  is  a 
member  of  the  Christian  community,  and  not  a  heathen 
prophetess  operating  from  without.  For  the  sin,  into  which 
she  would  seduce  the  servants  of  Christ,  is  not  apostasy  to 
any  kind  of  heathen  cultus,  but  a  form  of  libertinism  on  a 
Christian  basis.  The  watchword  of  this  teaching,  that  one 
must  know  '  the  deep  things  of  Satan,'  points  to  a  concep- 
tion and  practice  of  Gnosis  and  Freedom,  such  as  Paul  had 
already  required  to  combat  in  Corinth,  and  such  as  is 
attested  for  Asia  Minor  by  1  Peter  ii.  16."  (Die  Offenbarimg 
des  Johannes,  1904,  p.  52.) 


CHAPTEK   II.    18-29  109 

with  the  world  such  as  would  have  been  absolutely 
fatal  to  the  Church.  These  also  may  be  included 
in  the  condemnation  passed  by  these  Jetters  ;  for 
they  seemed  "  certain  to  lead  to  an  acquiescence 
in  the  commonly  accepted  standard  of  pagan 
society."  That  such  a  judgment  was  right,  "  no 
one  can  doubt  who  studies  the  history  of  Greek 
and  Roman  and  West  Asiatic  paganism  as  a 
force  in  human  life.  That  there  were  lofty 
qualities  and  some  high  ideals  in  those  pagan 
religions  must  be  frankly  recognised.  But  in 
human  nature  the  inevitable  tendency  of  paganism 
was  towards  a  low  standard  of  moral  life."  * 

And  this  is  the  ultimate  and  not  very  distant 
end  of  unbelief  in  all  its  forms.  Those  who  tell 
us  that  men  can  live  a  moral  life  without  belief  in 
God,  because  they  themselves  do  so,  are  men  and 
women  who  are  living  upon  the  moral  capital 
accumulated  by  generations  of  believing  fore- 
fathers. Respect  for  the  great  principles  of 
morality  may  be  ingrained  in  them  by  tradition ; 
the  all-important  question  is,  how  far  can  that 
respect  be  transmitted  without  the  belief  in 
God  which  gave  it  life  and  gives  it  authority? 
Alas  !  we  need  only  look  around  to  see.  Members 
of  the  Christian  Church  may  have  their  weak- 
nesses, their  sins,  occasionally  their  collapse  of  all 
morality ;  but  within  the  pale  of  faith  these 
•'  Bamsay,  loc,  cit.,  p.  339, 


110     THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

things  are  recognised  as  such,  they  are  deplored 
as  such,  they  may  be  repented  of  and  recovered 
from.  But  in  those  sections  of  society  which 
have  spurned  the  faith  of  God,  v^hat  do  we  see 
but  selfishness  rampant  and  unashamed,  selfish- 
ness which  has  no  respect  for  a  neighbour's 
welfare,  or  happiness,  or  honour,  v/hen  it  stands 
in  the  way  of  pleasure  or  of  passion.  And  we 
have  but  to  examine  our  daily  newspapers,  the 
records  of  police  and  divorce  courts,  in  order  to 
see  to  what  depths  of  immorahty  and  even 
bestiality  men  and  women  descend,  who  have 
begun  by  rejecting  God. 

Over  all  this,  whether  at  Thyatira  in  the  first 
century,  or  in  England  in  the  twentieth,  stands 
the  Son  of  Man  with  the  eyes  of  flame  and  the 
feet  of  power,  watching  to  give  to  each  one 
according  to  his  works — to  the  wicked  and  un- 
repentant the  bitterness  of  death,  to  the  steadfast 
and  self-restrained,  grace  for  grace,  and  victory 
for  victory.  In  the  description  of  the  fate 
reserved  for  the  prophetess  and  her  associates, 
there  is  probably  a  grim  irony,  which  would 
strike  the  Thyatiran  readers  more  readily  than 
ourselves.  The  time  would  come,  when,  in  the 
very  hour  of  her  voluptuous  self-indulgence  and 
defiance  of  God,  she  would  be  struck  down.  "I 
shall  set  her  on  a  dining- couch,  and  her  vile 
associates  with  her,  and  they  shall  have  oppor- 


CHAPTEK  II.   18-29  111 

tunity  to  enjoy  great  tribulation."  She  feedeth 
upon  ashes.  Her  end  is  bitter  as  wormwood, 
sharp  as  a  two-edged  sword.  Her  feet  go  down 
to  death.     Her  steps  take  hold  on  hell. 

The  conflict  for  the  members  of  the  Church 
at  Thyatira  who  would  be  faithful  to  their  Lord, 
was  the  same  in  character  as  that  which  has  to 
be  waged  by  the  members  of  His  Church  to-day. 
He  lays  on  them  no  other  burden  than  the  obliga- 
tion to  observe  the  moral  law,  which  is  proved  by 
the  experience  of  mankind  to  be  for  the  well- 
being  of  society,  as  well  as  for  the  highest  good  of 
each  individual.  The  truly  moral  man  asks  no 
other  wages  but  "the  wages  of  going  on."  Al- 
though he  asks  them  not,  however,  God  gives 
them.  As  Jesus  promised  in  the  parable  to  the 
one  who  had  been  faithful  in  his  service,  ''  I  will 
make  thee  ruler  over  ten  cities,"  so  here  to  the 
victor  in  this  struggle  to  keep  clear  our  vision  of 
what  is  pure,  of  what  is  true,  and  to  cleave  to 
what  we  see,  with  all  the  energy  of  our  being, 
He  promises  an  experience  of  victory  beyond  any- 
thing we  can  achieve  for  ourselves.  What  may 
be  meant  by  the  gift  of  **the  morning  star"  is 
wholly  unknown.  It  conceals  some  allusion 
which  is  lost  to  us.  But  the  rest  of  the  promise 
to  him  **  that  overcometh  "  is  thrown  into  a  form 
derived  from  the  second  psalm  and  there  con- 
nected with  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah.     It  is 


112      THE   BOOK   OF   REVELATION 

nothing  less  than  a  share  in  His  own  Messianic 
glory  which  the  Saviour  promises  to  him  "  that 
overcometh"  and  "keepeth  my  works  until  the 
end."  In  imagery  which  is  drawn  in  part  from 
the  Old  Testament,  in  part  from  Apocalyptic 
literature,  and  in  part  from  the  teaching  recorded 
in  the  fourth  Gospel,  this  great  prospect  is 
described,  a  time  when  the  final  victory  of 
righteousness  and  purity  and  love  shall  be  made 
manifest  before  the  eyes  of  all  mankind,  when 
the  fact  which  now  we  grasp  by  faith  has  become 
plain  to  sight  and  sense,  that  the  Lord  God 
Omnipotent  reigneth.  Then  the  glory  of  Him 
to  whom  the  victory  is  due,  will  be  not  for  Him- 
self alone,  but  that  other  word  will  be  fulfilled, 
"  the  glory  which  thou  gavest  me,  I  have  given 
them." 


THE  LETTEE  TO   THE   CHUECH 
AT   SAEDIS 

Eev.  iii.  1-6 

To  the  angel  of  the  church  in  Sardis  write :  These  things 
saith  he  that  hath  the  seven  Spirits  of  God,  and  the  seven 
stars :  I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  hast  a  name  that  thou 
livest,  and  thou  art  dead.  Be  thou  tvatchful  and  stablish 
the  things  that  remain,  ivhich  ivere  ready  to  die :  for  I 
have  found  no  works  of  thine  fulfilled  before  my  God. 
Bemember  therefore  how  thou  hast  received  and  didst  hear ; 
and  keep  it,  and  repent.  If  therefore  thou  shalt  not  watch, 
I  ivill  come  as  a  thief,  and  thou  shalt  not  know  what  hour 
I  will  come  upon  thee.  But  thou  hast  a  few  names  in 
Sardis  which  did  not  defile  their  garments  :  and  they  shall 
tualk  with  me  in  white;  for  they  are  ivortliy.  He  that 
overcometh  shall  thus  be  arrayed  in  ivhite  garments;  and 
I  will  in  no  wise  blot  his  name  out  of  the  book  of  life,  and 
I  will  confess  his  name  before  my  Father,  and  before  his 
angels.  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  tvhat  the  Spirit 
saith  to  the  churches  (B.V.). 

In  our  study  of  the  earlier  letters  to  the  seven 
Churches,  we  have  learned  to  recognise  the  delicate 
adaptation  of  the  phrasing  of  each  letter  to  the 
history,  social  condition,  and  the  moral  atmosphere 
of  the  community  to  which  it  is  addressed.  We 
have  found  reason  to  think  that  the  scope  of  the 
9  "3 


114      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

writer's  knowledge  and  interest  is  not  confined  to 
the  community  of  Christians  who  have  their 
home  there,  a  community  which  was  probably 
insignificant  in  number,  and  of  yesterday  as  to 
date.  It  is  hard  to  resist  the  evidence,  that  both 
his  knowledge  and  his  interest  embraced  circum- 
stances in  the  political  history  of  these  cities 
which  belonged  to  a  distant  past,  and  characteristics 
of  the  population  as  a  whole  which  imprinted 
their  mark  on  the  life  and  on  the  temptations  of 
that  section  to  whom  Christ's  was  the  name  above 
every  name.  In  the  case  of  Sardis  it  appears 
probable  that  this  delicate  adaptation  is  to  the 
tradition,  the  history,  and  the  topography  of  the 
famous  site  whereon  this  Church  found  itself 
established,  to  features  in  its  history  which  were 
never  far  from  the  consciousness  of  its  inhabitants  ; 
and  a  brief  recapitulation  of  these  will  be  the 
best  preparation  for  appreciating  the  letter. 

The  glory  of  Sardis  had  sadly  waned  by  the 
time  when  this  letter  was  written ;  but  it  was 
not  forgotten.  There  had  been  a  time  when  it 
was  the  capital  of  a  great  kingdom  extending 
over  the  whole  of  "Western  Asia  Minor,  the  first 
great  power  with  which  within  historic  time  the 
expanding  and  enterprising  peoples  of  the  Greek 
peninsula  came  into  contact  and  collision. 
"  Sardis  before  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century 
B.C.  was  to  the  Greek  colonists  of  the  Mgean 


CHAPTER  HI.   1-6  115 

coasts  the  great  city  of  the  East ;  to  them  it 
represented  Asia  as  distinguished  from,  and  more 
or  less  hostile  to,  Europe  and  Greece.  That 
impression  the  Asiatic  Greeks  with  their  tenacious 
historical  memory  never  entirely  lost.  Sardis 
always  was  to  them  the  capital  where  Croesus, 
richest  of  kings,  had  ruled — the  city  which  Solon, 
wisest  of  men,  had  visited,  and  where  he  had 
rightly  augured  ruin,  because  he  had  rightly  mis- 
trusted material  wealth  as  necessarily  hollow  and 
treacherous — the  fortress  of  many  warlike  kings 
like  Gyges,  whose  power  was  so  great  that  legend 
credited  him  with  the  possession  of  a  ring  of 
supernatural  power."  *  Its  immediate  neighbour- 
hood supplied  the  Eldorado  of  Greek  fancy,  seeing 
that  the  steep  bluff  on  which  it  stood  was  washed 
on  two  sides  by  the  waters  of  the  Pactolus,  which 
were  reputed  in  legend  to  roll  down  gold  like  sand. 
The  natural  position  of  the  city  on  this  high 
rocky  bluff  overlooking  the  plain  of  Hermus,  and 
separated  by  a  considerable  depression  from  the 
mountain  range  behind,  was  such  as  to  give  it  the 
reputation  of  being  impregnable.  On  three  sides 
of  the  city  the  cliff  was  understood  to  be  unscale- 
able  ;  it  was  only  necessary  to  guard  the  ''  cause- 
way," by  which  it  was  connected  with  other  high 
ground  behind  ;  and  that  could  be  held  by  a  score 
of  men  against  thousands.  An  impregnable  city, 
'^  W.  M.  Eamsay. 


116      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

but  one  which  had  often  been  taken — that  was 
Sardis.  The  first  occasion  of  its  capture  was  one 
which  made  a  profound  impression  on  memory 
and  on  legend. 

It  was  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  The  army  of 
Croesus  had  suffered  defeat  beyond  the  Halys,  at 
the  hand  of  Cyrus,  and  though  the  victorious 
enemy  followed  up  his  advantage  with  discon- 
certing rapidity,  and  appeared  before  the  walls  of 
Sardis  ere  a  new  army  could  be  collected,  neither 
Croesus  nor  any  of  the  inhabitants  believed  there 
was  any  danger  of  his  penetrating  their  impreg- 
nable rock- fortress.  The  only  way  of  approach, 
along  the  connecting  isthmus,  was  strongly 
fortified  and  carefully  guarded.  The  city  slept 
securely.  But  accident  or  treachery  revealed  to 
the  invaders  the  possibility  of  ascending  the  rock- 
face  by  some  crack  or  ledge,  the  existence  of  which 
had  been  overlooked  by  the  defenders.  By  this 
the  soldiers  of  Cyrus  clambered  up,  and  Croesus 
awoke  to  find  his  capital  in  the  hands  of  the 
Persians.  Cyrus  had  come  upon  Sardis  "  like  a 
thief  in  the  night";  and  long  afterwards  in 
Greece  the  fate  of  Croesus  and  of  his  city  served 
to  point  the  moral  of  overweening  self-confidence 
and  thoughtless  security.  But  even  the  fact  that 
it  had  thus  become  a  proverb  for  fooHsh  con- 
fidence did  not  save  Sardis  from  suffering  the 
same  fate  again,  when  some  three  centuries  later 


CHAPTEK  III.   1-6  117 

it  was  captured  by  Antiochus.  Sardis  was  a 
city  which  looked  impregnable,  but  had  been 
taken.  And  for  some  time  previous  to  the  date 
of  this  letter  it  had  been  slowly  sinking  in 
importance.  Out-distanced  by  its  younger  rivals, 
Ephesus  and  Smyrna  on  the  sea  coast,  it  became 
a  melancholy  spectacle,  a  place  of  third-rate 
importance,  unable  to  forget  that  it  had  once 
been  chief.  Even  as  a  city,  Sardis  was  pre- 
tentious and  self-satisfied,  yet  moribund,  having 
a  "  name  to  live  "  and  yet  dead. 

The  social  history  of  Sardis  finds  a  singularly 
close  reflection  in  the  history  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  within  its  walls,  so  that  the  Apostle 
could  point  the  moral  of  the  one  by  using 
language  which  was  suggested  by,  and  suggested, 
the  other.  There  is  first  the  superscription  of 
the  letter.  It  comes  from  him  "that  hath  the 
seven  Spirits  of  God,  and  the  seven  stars  " ;  the 
letter  to  Ephesus  was  from  Him  that  held  in  His 
hand  the  seven  stars,  and  walked  in  the  midst  of 
the  seven  golden  candlesticks.  What  difference 
of  attitude  does  the  change  imply  ?  The  "  stars  " 
are  the  heavenly  counterparts  of  the  Churches — 
the  lamp-stands  the  earthly  symbols  of  the  same. 
If  for  the  Church  of  Sardis  the  Saviour  is  no 
longer  walking  among  the  seven  lamp-stands, 
it  is  suggested  that  her  candlestick  has  been 
removed.     As  a  Church  she  is  moribund,  a  prey 


118     THE   BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

to  death.  No  good  works  are  to  be  recognised 
as  hers.  No  "  tribulation  "  can  be  recorded  as 
having  been  endured  by  her  with  credit,  no 
struggle  with  false  teaching,  no  stern  resistance 
to  false  practices.  The  Church  there  lived  *'a 
ghastly  smooth  life,  dead  at  heart."  Its  apparent 
life  was  only  in  appearance.  Nevertheless,  its 
death  was  not  absolute  or  final.  Its  candlestick 
may  have  been  removed,  but  not  its  star.  The 
jewel  by  which  it  was  represented  was  still  in 
the  hand  of  Christ.  And  He  who  still  holds  it  as 
one  of  the  seven  stars  hath  also  "  the  seven 
Spirits  of  God."  This  phrase  comes,  not  like  the 
others,  from  the  description  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
but  from  the  Salutation  at  the  opening  of  the 
book.  It  signifies  the  possession  by  the  Saviour 
of  all  the  plentitude  of  Divine  energy,  but  inas- 
much as  this  energy  is  spoken  of  as  "  the  seven 
Spirits  of  God,"  it  is  suggested  that  there  is  for 
each  of  the  seven  Churches  its  own  share,  its  own 
portion,  of  this  quickening  force.  Yes,  even  for 
Sardis.  This  Church  has  indeed  a  name  to  live, 
but  it  is  dead  in  self-complacency  and  worldliness. 
To  such  a  Church  it  is  easy  to  see  why  Christ 
presents  Himself  as  holding  still  the  seven  stars, 
its  star  not  extinguished,  but  also  the  Seven 
Spirits,  and  so  for  its  benefit  a  Spirit  which 
maketh  alive  from  the  dead. 

The  body  of  this  letter  divides  itself  differently 


CHAPTEK  III.   1-6  119 

from  any  of  the  others,  the  first  part  being 
addressed  to,  and  deaHng  with,  the  Church  as 
a  whole.  To  the  Church  as  a  whole  a  few  sharp 
sentences  suffice  to  convey  a  picture  of  its  true 
condition,  counsel,  grave  even  to  severity,  and 
a  warning  calculated  to  startle  even  its  self- 
complacency.  Its  condition  was  that  of  death 
in  life.  It  had  all  the  outward  forms  of  a 
Church,  its  meetings,  its  worship,  its  organisa- 
tion, its  beneficence ;  but  it  had  no  real  life.  The 
symptom  which  is  here  singled  out  as  character- 
ising this  condition  is  what  we  should  call 
slackness,  ineffectiveness.  "I  have  found  no 
works  of  thine  fulfilled  before  my  God."  Works 
were  not  wanting ;  but  all  alike  were  branded 
with  incompleteness,  perfunctoriness,  unreality. 
There  was  no  heart  in  them,  and  the  Divine 
Inspector  throws  them  aside. 

The  cause  of  this  hollow  show  of  life  is  sug- 
gested by  the  feature  by  which  some  individuals 
within  the  Church  are  marked  out  as  exceptions. 
They  "had  not  defiled  their  garments."  Ap- 
parently the  others  had;  they  had  not  kept 
themselves  "unspotted  from  the  world."  How 
far  their  weak  degeneracy  had  gone,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say  :  probably  not  so  far  as  an  actual 
return  to  the  vices  of  Paganism  from  which  they 
had  been  delivered.  For  in  that  case  the  counsel 
which  is  here  given  would  have  been  inadequate 


120.     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

to  the  situation.  The  whole  tone  of  this  part  of 
the  letter  seems  to  point  rather  to  a  serious 
slackening  of  moral  fibre,  to  an  inclination  to  slur 
over  the  distinctions  between  the  standard  of 
Christ  and  the  standard  of  the  world,  and  to 
fling  away  some  of  the  distinctive  practices  and 
forms  of  self-denial  which  were  provided  as  safe- 
guards of  the  specifically  Christian  character. 
Sardis  had  been  too  much  for  them;  its  at- 
mosphere of  self-pleasing,  of  self-indulgence,  had 
poisoned  the  well-springs  of  their  faith,  making 
it  sickly,  feeble,  and  ineffective.  Instead  of  their 
overcoming  the  world,  the  world  had  overcome 
them.  And  the  result  was  seen  in  stains  upon 
their  outward  life. 

Surely  this  holding  up  of  the  mirror  of  truth 
before  the  Church  which  has  at  least  a  name 
to  live,  will  make  it  ready  to  hearken  to  the 
grave  counsel  which  follows.  This  is  an  ex- 
hortation to  remember  the  past,  to  keep  fast 
hold  on  what  remains,  and  to  repent,  or  return 
to  the  early  disposition  which  had  marked  their 
first  acceptance  of  truth.  They  are  to  remember 
with  what  eagerness  they  received  the  gift  of 
God,  which  is  **  without  repentance,"  with  what 
joy  they  heard  the  Gospel.  How  often  does  the 
Divine  summons  to  men  take  this  form  of  a  call 
to  remember ;  and  how  often  do  we  find  it,  as 
here,  linked  with  a  prediction  or  promise  of  the 


CHAPTEK  III.   1-6  121 

future.  It  is  indeed  the  Divine  way  of  dealing 
with  one  of  the  subtlest  forms  of  human  evasion, 
with  the  disposition  to  treat  life  as  if  it  were  a 
series  of  disconnected  experiences,  as  though 
a  man  could  wipe  out  the  past  by  forgetting  it, 
or  could  destroy  the  future  by  ignoring  it.  Thus 
men  attempt  to  escape  the  sense  of  responsibility 
at  the  cost  of  what  gives  man  his  true  manhood. 
For  it  is  the  mark  of  his  high  position  in  the  scale 
of  being  that  he  is  "a  thing  of  large  discourse, 
looking  before  and  after."  His  powers  of  memory 
and  of  anticipation  are  among  the  things  which 
lift  him  above  the  beasts;  but  it  is  they  which 
also  bring  with  them  the  sense  of  responsibility. 
And  for  those  who  are  in  any  sense  God's  people, 
memory  and  anticipation  are  among  the  most 
precious  means  whereby  men  can  face  the 
present,  bear  it,  control  it,  make  it  subservient 
to  noble  ends,  by  referring  themselves  to  great 
facts  in  the  past  and  great  hopes  for  the  future. 
"Eemember,  therefore,"  how  God  came  to  you, 
how  God  spake  to  you,  how  with  a  mighty  hand 
He  delivered  you  from  ignorance,  from  hopeless- 
ness, from  death ;  how  by  the  life,  the  death,  and 
the  resurrection  of  His  Son,  He  spoke  unto  you 
a  gospel  which  quickened  within  you  life  and 
hope  and  love.  Kemember — ''Lord,  keep  our 
memory  green" — and  ''establish  the  things  that 
remain,"  the  habits  of  Christian  piety  and  charity, 


122      THE   BOOK  OF   EEVELATION 

the  practice  of  assembling  yourselves  together, 
the  convictions  v^^hich  even  your  compromise 
with  the  world  have  not  been  able  to  disturb ; 
emphasise  these  to  yourselves ;  keep  fast  hold 
of  what  you  have,  and — repent.  That  is  to  say, 
recognise  that,  though  at  the  outset  you  shaped 
your  course  straight  towards  heaven  and  God, 
the  currents  of  the  world's  life  have  caught  and 
turned  your  bark,  till  now  it  is  drifting,  if  not 
speeding,  in  the  wrong  direction.  Bepent,  face 
round,  set  your  course  once  more  towards  God. 

There  is  thus  a  note  of  wistful  urgency  even 
in  this  address  to  a  Church  like  that  of  Sardis, 
and  there  is  also  an  implicit  promise ;  for  Christ 
would  never  call  on  men  to  do  either  what  is 
impossible,  or  what  has  not  a  promise  attached 
to  its  performance.  But  it  is  not  on  the  note  of 
promise,  but  on  that  of  warning,  that  this  part 
of  the  letter  closes.  Evidently  the  thread  of  hope 
is  slender,  and  the  Church  of  Sardis  is  warned 
that  if  it  does  not  hearken  to  this  counsel,  if  it 
does  not  exchange  its  attitude  of  listless  security 
for  one  of  wakeful  watchfulness,  its  fate  will  be 
like  that  of  the  city  of  Sardis.  The  enemy  crept 
in  upon  the  careless  city  **  like  a  thief  in  the 
night,"  and  as  a  thief  in  the  night  will  Christ 
return  against  the  careless  Church,  unlooked  for, 
undesired,  not  for  mercy,  but  for  judgment. 

But  not  all  the  Christians  in  Sardis  fell  under 


CHAPTEE   III.   1-6  123 

the  condemnation  which  struck  the  Church. 
Even  there  the  Lord  recognises  the  presence 
of  a  few  who  are  ''  among  the  faithless  faithful 
found."  And  with  them  the  second  part  of  the 
letter  is  concerned.  There  is  *'  a  peculiarly  kind 
and  loving  tone  perceptible  in  this  part  of  the 
letter."  These,  who  have  not  '*  defiled  their 
garments,"  have  kept  their  purity  in  circum- 
stances of  special  trial;  and  their  reward  is 
great,  for  they  shall  walk  with  Christ,  be  seen 
in  His  company,  clad  in  robes  whose  whiteness 
proclaims  their  purity  and  triumph.  The  promise 
to  these  passes  over  into  a  general  promise,  in 
which  all  are  included  who,  like  them,  strive,  and 
strive  successfully,  to  keep  themselves  unspotted 
from  the  world.  It  is  a  promise  of  life,  the  same 
in  substance  as  that  given  through  the  Church  at 
Smyrna,  but  here  it  is  thrown  into  a  new  form, 
that  their  names  shall  not  be  blotted  "  out  of  the 
book  of  life."  The  origin  of  this  symbol  may  be 
found  in  the  roll  or  register  of  citizens  of  Jeru- 
salem, such  as  is  referred  to  by  Isaiah.*  From 
this  it  passes  to  a  roll  of  the  names  of  God's 
people  kept  by  God  Himself,  such  as  Moses  has 
in  view  in  his  prayer,  ''  And  if  not,  blot  me,  I 
pray  thee,  out  of  thy  book  which  thou  hast 
written."  t     Our  Lord  uses  the  same  figure,  ad- 

'■'  Isa.  iv.  3. 

t  Exod.  xxxii.  32 ;  cf.  Ps.  Ixix.  28,  and  Luke  x.  20. 


124      THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

dressing  His  disciples,  when  He  bids  them 
rejoice,  '*  because  your  names  are  written  in 
heaven."  The  faith  of  a  human  heart  laying 
hold  of  God's  grace  does  establish  a  relation- 
ship which  God  is  slow,  very  slow,  to  break 
or  to  allow  to  be  broken.  His  long-suffering 
with  the  world  is  great,  but  with  those  who 
have  entered  into  this  relation  it  is  greater  far. 
It  is  only  by  some  definite  decision  on  our  part, 
which  amounts  to  wrenching  ourselves  away  from 
God,  or  by  the  cumulative  effect  of  prolonged  and 
increasing  carelessness — which  amounts  to  the 
same  thing — that  we  incur  this  doom  of  having 
that  name,  our  name,  blotted  out,  which  was 
inscribed  with  so  much  joy.  And  the  names  not 
only  stand  there,  as  it  were,  to  be  referred  to  in 
case  of  need,  but  the  day  approaches  when  before 
men  and  angels  each  of  these  names  will  be 
openly  proclaimed.  It  will  be  a  day  of  great 
surprises,  when  we  discover  who  among  us 
have  been  faithful,  who  have  kept  their  gar- 
ments from  all  stain.  The  wisest  judges  here 
will  find  how  much  they  have  been  mistaken. 
It  should  not  be  difficult  to  realise  the  effect 
of  the  reading  of  this  letter  in  the  hearing  of 
the  congregation  in  Sardis,  on  some  Sunday  even- 
ing in  the  second  half  of  the  first  century.  It 
would  strike  all  as  a  picture,  terrible  in  its 
accuracy,  of  the  condition  of  that  Church  as  seen 


CHAPTEE  III.   1-6  125 

by  God.  Surely  it  would  stir  the  corporate  con- 
science of  that  Church  to  a  sense  of  its  imminent 
danger,  due  to  its  want  of  spiritual  life,  of  true 
brotherly  love,  of  devotion  to  Christ  its  head. 
It  would  call  out  in  many,  if  not  in  all,  the 
resolve  to  watch,  to  watch  so  as  to  repel  the 
insidious  approaches  and  attacks  of  the  worldly 
spirit;  to  be  more  faithful  and  more  simple  in 
the  discharge  of  the  humblest  duties  imposed 
upon  them  by  their  Master's  will.  To  some 
it  would  give  a  new  sense  of  responsibility,  and 
even  of  privilege,  involved  in  the  very  fact 
that  the  atmosphere  around  them  was  cold, 
hostile,  even  dangerous.  They  would  feel  up- 
lifted by  the  thought  that  the  honour  of  their 
Lord,  as  well  as  the  safety  of  their  Church,  was 
specially  entrusted  to  their  care.  It  would  send 
them  forth  into  the  night,  determined  to  be  even 
more  loyal,  more  faithful,  more  set  on  over- 
coming the  world,  because  they  felt  that  the  eye 
of  their  Master  was  upon  them,  that  He  was  not 
indifferent  to  any  work  they  might  do,  or  patience 
they  might  show,  and  that  each  day's  victory 
over  the  world  and  self  was  the  pledge  of  a  final 
victory,  of  which  only  eternity  would  reveal 
the  joy. 

**  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the 
Spirit  saith  to  the  churches." 


THE   LETTER  TO   THE   CHURCH 
AT   PHILADELPHIA 

Eev.  iii.  7-13 

These  things  saith  he  that  is  holy,  he  that  is  true,  he  that 
hath  the  hey  of  David,  he  that  openetJi,  and  none  shall 
shut,  and  that  shutteth,  and  none  ojjeneth  :  I  hnow  thy 
worJcs  (behold,  I  have  set  hefore  thee  a  door  opened,  which 
none  can  shut),  that  thou  hast  a  little  power,  and  didst  Jceep 
my  word,  and  didst  not  deny  my  name.  Behold,  I  give 
of  the  synagogue  of  Satan,  of  them  which  say  they  are 
Jews,  and  they  are  not,  hut  do  lie;  behold,  I  tvill  make 
them  to  come  and  worship  hefore  thy  feet,  and  to  Tinow  that 
I  have  loved  thee.  Because  thou  didst  Tieep  the  word  of  my 
patience,  I  also  tvill  keep)  thee  from  the  hour  of  trial,  that 
hour  which  is  to  come  up)on  the  ivhole  world,  to  try  them 
that  dtvell  upon  the  earth.  I  come  quicMy ;  hold  fast 
that  ivhich  thou  hast,  that  no  one  take  thy  crown.  He  that 
overcometh  I  tvill  make  him  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  my 
God,  and  he  shall  go  out  thence  no  more :  and  I  tvill  write 
upon  him  the  naine  of  my  God,  and  the  name  of  the  city  of 
my  God,  the  neiv  Jerusalem,  which  cometh  doivn  out  of 
heaven,  from  my  God,  and  mine  oivn  new  name.  He  that 
hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the 
churches  (B.V.). 

When  William  Penn  set  out  on  his  great  experi- 
ment of  establishing  a  Christian  and  democratic 

126 


CHAPTER  III.   7-13  127 

colony  in  North  America,  he  gave  to  the  place 
which  was  to  be  its  capital  the  name  of  Phila- 
delphia. To  this  choice  he  was  doubtless  led,  in 
part  at  least,  by  the  meaning  of  the  name, 
"brotherly  love";  for  that  expressed  the  ideal 
which  he  cherished  for  his  colony.  But  Penn 
was  too  good  a  student  of  his  New  Testament 
not  to  know  that  his  ideal  had  been  already 
realised,  at  least  to  some  extent,  within  the  city  of 
Asia  Minor  which  originally  bore  the  name. 
Historically  as  well  as  etymologically,  it  was  a 
name  of  good  omen,  for  the  Lord  of  the  Church 
had  caused  to  be  sent  to  the  Christians  dwelling 
there  a  letter  full  of  appreciation  of  their  worth 
and  service,  full  also  of  great  and  gracious  pro- 
mises. 

The  character  of  this  Church  is  indicated  at  the 
outset  by  the  aspect  under  which  their  Lord 
presents  Himself  before  its  members.  **  These 
things  saith  he  that  is  holy,  he  that  is  true,  he 
that  hath  the  key  of  David,  he  that  openeth,  and 
none  shall  shut,  and  that  shutteth,  and  none 
openeth."  To  be  holy,  is  an  attribute  of  the 
Most  High,  to  have  the  key  of  David  an  attribute 
of  the  Messiah,  to  be  true,  the  Truth,  one  of  the 
most  precious  characteristics  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
There  are  thus  summed  together,  in  this  de- 
scription of  the  Divine  quality,  the  historical 
significance  and  the    personal  character  of    the 


128     THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

speaker ;  and  each  one  of  these  is  regarded  and 
presented  on  its  gracious  side.  Neither  reproach, 
nor  warning,  nor  judgment  is  called  for;  and 
none  of  them  is  suggested  by  the  guise  which  the 
speaker  adopts.  *'In  this  respect,"  says  Pro- 
fessor Kamsay,  "  the  letters  to  Smyrna  and 
Philadelphia  form  a  class  by  themselves.  These 
two  Churches  are  praised  with  far  more  cordiality 
and  less  reserve  than  any  of  the  others.  They 
have  both  had  to  contend  with  serious  difficulties. 
The  Smyrnaean  Church  was  poor  and  oppressed ; 
the  Philadelphian  Church  had  little  power. 
Before  both  is  held  forth  a  prospect  of  suffering 
and  trial;  but  in  both  cases  a  triumphant  issue 
is  anticipated.  Life  for  Smyrna,  honour  and 
dignity  for  Philadelphia,  are  promised — not  for 
a  residue  among  the  unfaithful,  as  at  Thyatira 
and  Sardis,  but  for  the  Church  in  both  cities.  It 
is  an  interesting  coincidence  that  those  are  the 
two  cities  which  have  been  the  bulwark  and  the 
glory  of  the  Christian  power  in  the  country 
since  it  became  Mohammedan ;  they  are  the  two 
places  where  the  Christian  flag  floated  latest  over 
a  free  and  powerful  city,  and  where  even  in 
slavery  the  Christians  possessed  cohesion  among 
themselves  and  real  influence  among  the  Turkish 
conquerors."  This  salutation,  therefore,  in  which 
the  Lord  of  the  Church  presents  Himself  in  one 
gracious  aspect  after  another  is  in  truest  harmony 


CHAPTEE  III.   7-13  129 

both  with  the  character  and  with  the  future  of  the 
Church  in  Smyrna. 

*'  I  know  thy  works  :  behold,  I  have  set  before 
thee  an  open  door,  and  no  man  can  shut  it :  for 
thou  hast  a  httle  strength,  and  hast  kept  my 
word,  and  hast  not  denied  my  name."  The 
arrangement  of  the  clauses  in  the  Authorised 
Version  is  still  to  be  preferred  to  that  of  the 
Eevised.  Alone  among  the  seven  Churches  the 
works  of  the  Church  in  Philadelphia  are  acknow- 
ledged but  not  specified.  The  love,  faith, 
ministry,  or  patience  of  the  people  are  left  to  be 
assumed.  They  may  be  inferred  from  the  special 
privilege  which  is  granted  to  the  Church,  the 
privilege  of  a  great  opportunity.  "It  is  true 
thou  hast  but  little  power,  but  thou  hast  kept  my 
word  " — and  "  to  him  that  hath,  shall  be  given  "  ; 
and  so  before  the  Church  there  stands  an  open 
door,  one  which  has  been  opened  by  the  hand 
which  openeth,  "  and  none  can  shut."  The  mean- 
ing of  the  picture  is  not  obscure.  The  "door" 
is  not  in  this  case  that  of  entrance  into  eternal 
life,  nor  yet  of  entrance  into  God's  kingdom  upon 
earth,  but  of  entrance  into  a  field  of  successful 
missionary  activity.  St.  Paul  had  already  made 
frequent  use  of  the  metaphor  in  this  sense.  He 
had  told  how  at  Ephesus  "  a  great  door  and 
effectual "  was  opened  to  him  ;  how  similarly  at 
Troas  "  a  door  was  opened  "  ;  and  when  he  bid 
10 


130      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

the  Colossians  pray  that  God  may  "  open  unto  us 
a  door  for  the  word,  to  speak  the  mystery  of 
Christ,"  he  makes  plain  the  meaning :  the  open 
door  is  a  free  opportunity  for  propagating  the 
Gospel,  for  entering  with  the  good  news  of 
Christ  into  the  regions  beyond. 

This  privilege  was  in  accordance  with  the 
situation  occupied  by  the  Church  in  Philadelphia. 
It  was  marked  out  to  be  a  missionary  Church, 
standing,  as  it  did,  in  one  of  the  gateways  to  the 
central  plateau  of  Asia  Minor,  through  which  not 
only  trade  and  travellers,  but  also  the  message  of 
the  Gospel,  could  pass  to  the  nations  of  the 
"hinterland";  and  to  the  Christians  at  Phila- 
delphia was  this  grace  granted  that  the  way  to 
missionary  activity  lay  open  before  them.  It  was 
a  reward  of  their  faithfulness  in  the  use  of  oppor- 
tunities nearer  home ;  plainly,  it  was  a  reward 
which  they  would  appreciate;  and  it  came  to 
them  in  a  measure  which  would  have  been 
beyond  their  own  power  to  compass.  Christ's 
own  hand  had  set  this  door  open  before  them. 
It  was  a  carrying  out  of  the  principle  laid  down 
in  the  parable  :  *'  Because  thou  hast  been  faithful 
in  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many 
things." 

It  is  a  character  of  noble  Christian  quality 
which  presents  itself  elusively  yet  effectively 
through    the     medium    of    these     sentences — a 


CHAPTEE  III.    7-13  131 

Christian  community  not  richly  endowed  with 
means  or  members,  yet  making  the  most  of  the 
opportunities  within  its  reach,  eager  to  let  its 
light  shine  as  far  as  it  could  in  the  circumstances, 
pained  that  it  could  do  so  little,  and  having 
suddenly  opened  before  it,  because  its  Lord  knew 
it  was  worthy,  an  opportunity  of  larger  service. 
Some  change  in  outward  circumstances,  some 
alteration  in  the  route  of  the  trade-caravans, 
suddenly  expanded  their  sphere  of  influence.  It 
was  the  Lord's  doing,  and  marvellous  in  their 
eyes. 

Philadelphia  is  the  Church  of  the  one  talent, 
but  of  the  one  talent  honestly  employed  in  the 
Lord's  service.  It  was  not  discouraged  by  the 
fact  that  its  strength  was  small.  And  its  expe- 
rience supplies  the  evidence  of  what  is  only  to  be 
inferred  from  the  parable,  that  even  the  one  talent 
so  employed  meets  with  both  recognition  and 
reward.  Indeed,  the  wording  of  the  letter  sug- 
gests that  just  because  our  power  is  but  small, 
the  Lord  has  regard  unto  it,  if  only  we  use  what 
we  have,  and  with  His  own  royal  hand  throws 
open  the  door  of  new  possibilities.  This  is  Phila- 
delphia's crown :  the  one  word  of  exhortation 
addressed  to  her  is  that  she  should  hold  it  fast. 

The  rest  of  the  letter  is  entirely  made  up  of 
great  promises,  three  in  number:  a  promise  to 
the   Church    in  view  of    what    it   was  exposed 


132      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

to  through  the  hostility  of  the  Jews,  another  in 
view  of  approaching  trial,  and  a  third  to  ''him 
that  overcometh." 

It    is    one    of    the    ironies    of    history    that 
wherever  we  find  the   Christian   Church  during 
the  first  century  we  find  it  confronted,  scorned, 
and  even  persecuted,  by  the  Jews.    The  reason  for 
this  was  probably  political  rather  than  religious  in 
its  character.     The  strongest  element  in  Judaism 
at  this  period  was  its  nationalism,  to  which  its 
monotheism  served   as   a  buttress.     "  The  Jews 
boasted  themselves  to  be   the  national  and  pa- 
triotic party,  the  true  Jews,  the  chosen  people, 
beloved  and  favoured  of  God,  who  were  hereafter 
to  be  victors  and  masters  of  the  world,  when  the 
Messiah  should  come  in  His  kingdom.      They 
upbraided  and  despised  the  Jewish  Christians  as 
traitors  unworthy  of    the  name    of    Jews,   the 
enemies  of  God."*     In  fact  judgment  had  fallen 
upon  them,  the  very  judgment  which  Jesus  had 
predicted,  that  while  they  which  were  blind  should 
through  Him  come  to  see,  they  who  thought  they 
saw   should   become   blind.     When   they  turned 
away  from  Him  they  turned  away  from  the  light, 
and  specially  from  the  revelation  of  the  Divine 
Kingdom  as  a  spiritual  kingdom,  one  which  tran- 
scended all  national  distinctions ;  and  the  religion 
which  had  been  their  strength   changed  into   a 
"•''  See  Ramsay,  loc,  cit.,  p.  409. 


CHAPTEE  III.   7-13  133 

source  of  weakness,  inasmuch  as  it  ministered  to 
their  pride.  Towards  the  Christians  they  were  at 
the  best  haughty  and  overbearing,  at  the  worst 
vindictive  and  cruel.  But  it  was  not  to  be  so 
always — so  this  promise  runs.  Already  the  situa- 
tion is  reversed  before  God,  and  the  promise 
which  had  been  given  of  old  time,  that  the 
Gentiles  should  come  and  do  homage  to  Israel, 
now  becomes  an  assurance  to  the  Christians, 
whether  of  Jewish  or  of  Gentile  origin,  that 
Jews  shall  come  and  worship  before  their  feet ; 
and  the  very  thing  which  the  Jews  denied  shall 
become  too  plain  to  be  ignored,  namely,  that 
the  Christians  were  indeed  the  people  of  God's 
peculiar  choice  and  favour.  So  completely  has 
the  Christian  Church  taken  the  place  of  Sion, 
as  the  Jews  have  fallen  back  into  the  position  of 
the  enemies  of  God.  The  promises  made  in  the 
Old  Testament  to  Israel  after  the  flesh  are  trans- 
ferred to  the  new  Israel  according  to  faith.  And 
by  the  same  law  whereby  a  door  came  to  be 
opened  before  the  Christians  in  Philadelphia 
another  door  was  closed  before  the  Jews  : 
*'From  him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away 
even  that  which  he  seemeth  to  have." 

The  second  of  these  promises  is  similarly 
founded  upon,  and  formed  out  of,  the  facts  of  the 
situation.  "  Because  thou  didst  keep  the  word 
of  my  patience,  I,  on  my  side,  will  do  the  same 


134      THE   BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

for  thee ;  I  will  keep  thee  safe  through  the  hour 
of    trial."      Even    this   faithful   and  so  patient 
Church   may  not   escape   the   trial  which  is  to 
fall   on   all   around.      And,   like    all   trials,   this 
will  be  also  temptation,  an  opportunity,  nay,  an 
inducement  to  "  remember  the  country,"  the  old 
life,  from   which   they  had  come  forth,  and  to 
return.     This  is  the  second  direct  allusion  in  the 
book  to  the  approaching  sufferings  of  the  Church, 
the  prophecy  of  which  culminates  in  the  thir- 
teenth chapter.    It  would  be  a  time  of  testing, 
of  sifting  the  grain  from  the  chaff.     To  some  it 
v/ould  be  an  excuse  for  falling  back  into  the  old 
easy  ways   of  heathenism,  of  forgetting,  if  not 
openly  denying,  Christ.    And  even  for  those  who 
could    not    entertain    such    a    suggestion  for  a 
moment  there   would  be    strain   on  their   own 
faith   and  patience,   and   doubt,  hesitation,  and 
pain   as  to  many   of   their  brethren.     Half  the 
anxiety    regarding    the    anticipated    persecution 
would  be  gone  if  men  could  be  sure  concerning 
one  another  as  well  as  themselves,  that  all  would 
stand  firm.     And  here   comes  in  the  reward  of 
faithfulness  in  the  past,  that  it  is  confirmed  for 
the  future.     "Thou  hast  kept  my  word :  I  will 
keep  thee."   The  reward  of  keeping  is  being  kept. 
For  the  Church   of   to-day  the  hour  of  trial 
does  not  strike  so  loudly  on  the  clock  of  time, 
neither  is  the    nature    of    the    trial    so  clearly 


CHAPTEE  III.    7-13  135 

defined.  But  it  is  before  us  nevertheless ;  in  a 
sense  it  is  upon  us.  The  "world"  has  learnt 
wisdom  since  the  days  of  Eome,  and  no  longer 
persecutes  the  Christian  disciples  with  sword  and 
cross ;  but  he  must  be  strangely  insensitive  who, 
being  one  of  Christ's  disciples,  does  not  feel  in 
the  conditions  of  modern  life  ''a  trial"  more 
subtle,  more  dangerous,  and,  to  him  who  pur- 
poses to  overcome,  not  less  full  of  pain.  What- 
ever opportunity  men  had  in  the  first  century  of 
glorifying  their  Lord  by  "  keeping  the  word  of 
his  patience,"  by  enduring  and  suffering  for  His 
sake,  or  of  testing  the  truth  of  His  promise,  we 
have  the  same.  In  the  accumulated  pressure  upon 
us  of  the  world-spirit,  making  its  arrival  by  so 
many  channels,  in  the  scarcely  veiled  hostility  of 
the  world  to  all  that  seems  to  us  most  worthy  of 
devotion,  in  the  attack  made  on  the  bases  of  our 
faith  often  under  the  sanction  of  great  authority, 
we  see,  the  true  disciple  feels,  ''  the  trial  which  is 
come  upon  the  whole  world,"  a  trial  which  is  also 
a  'temptation.  But  to  the  Churches,  as  to  those 
within  the  Church  who  keep  the  word  of  His 
patience,  comes  this  promise,  sufficient  to  quench 
al  anxiety:  he  that  keepeth,  shall  be  kept — by 
the  mighty  hand  of  God. 

Then  comes  the  closing  promise — ''  to  him 
that  overcometh."  The  form  into  which  this  is 
thrown  is  probably  connected  with  features  in  the 


136      THE   BOOK  OF   REVELATION 

history  and  the  social  Hfe  of  Philadelphia.     For 
one  thing,  its  history  as  a  city  was  severed  into 
two  parts  by  the   occurrence  of    an  earthquake, 
which  not  only  left  all  its  buildings  in  ruins,  but 
was   followed   by   a    series   of    earth-tremors   so 
prolonged  that   the   inhabitants   began  to  doubt 
the  stability  of  the  ground  on  which  they  dwelt. 
They  lived    as    a    people    ready  to  flee,  to  quit 
their  city  at  a  moment's   notice.     To  them,  as 
citizens,   no   greater  or  more  welcome  promise 
could  have  been  given  than  the  assurance  that 
what  they  builded  should   stand  firm,  and  that 
never  again  would  they  have  to  quit  their  homes 
for  safety.     And  it  is  another  illustration  of  the 
singular   adaptation   of    the    contents    of    these 
letters    to  the    circumstances   of    the  respective 
localities,  that  the  Lord's  promise  to  the  faithful 
ones  in  Philadelphia  takes  this  form  of  an  assur- 
ance of  perfect  stability.   He  Himself  will  "  stab- 
lish"  and  "settle"  them,  setting  each  one  "as 
a  pillar  "  in  the  house  of  God,  which  shall  never 
be   shaken  or  removed.     He  is  to   be  a  pillai', 
something  more  than  one  of  the  stones  of  which 
the  walls  are  composed,  an  honoured  and  con- 
spicuous part  of  the  whole  fabric.     And  his  place 
therein  is  permanent.     He  has  *'  the  living  will 
that  shall  endure,   when   all    that    seems  shall 
suffer  shock."     "  He  that  doeth  the  will  of  God, 
abideth  for  ever." 


CHAPTEE  III.  7-13  137 

But   this   position  and    this  permanence    are 
not  due  to  his  own  determination  only,  or  to  his 
own  faithfulness ;  they  are  due  also  to  something 
in  God,  something /rom  God  which  confirms  and 
ratifies  the  result  of  his  own  victory ;  and  this  is 
expressed  in  the  amplification  of  the  promise,  "  I 
will  write  upon  him  the  name  of  my  God,  and 
the  name  of  the  City  of  my  God,  the  new  Jeru- 
salem .  .  .  and  mine  own  new  name."     Profes- 
sor   Bamsay    thinks    it    incorrect    to    say  that 
the  victor  is  to  receive  three  names — of  God,  of 
the  Church,  and  of  Christ;  and  that  "the  real 
meaning  is  that  a  name  is  written  on  him  which 
has  all  three  characters,  and  is  at  once  the  name 
of  God,  the  name  of  the  Church,  and  the  name  of 
Christ."*     But  in  the  absence  of  reasons  to  the 
contrary,  it  still  seems  best  to  take  the  terms  of 
this  promise  in  what  appears  to  be  their  simplest 
meaning.     The  idea  of  one  name  which  should 
be  at  once  the  name  of  God,  the  name  of  the 
Church,  and  the  name  of  the  Eedeemer,  is  one 
difficult  to  harmonise  with  the  general  concep- 
tion even  of  an  Apocalyptic  writer ;  and  for  the 
triple  name  there  is    an    interesting   analogy.! 
Once  more,  the  form  which   the  promise  takes 

^'  Eamsay,  loc.  cit.,  p.  412. 

f  See  Bousset,  Die  Offenharung  des  Johannes,  p.  269 
(quoting  Hirschfeld).  Weiss  (Bernard)  accepts  the  three 
names  without  comment. 


138    THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

may  be  due  to  local  circumstances.  It  appears 
to  have  been  the  custom  in  those  towns  where 
there  was  a  temple  of  the  Emperor,  that  the 
high  priest  of  that  temple,  when  laying  down  his 
office,  had  a  statue  of  himself  erected  within  the 
temple  precincts,  on  which  were  inscribed  his  own 
name,  his  father's  name,  and  the  name  of  his 
home,  as  well  as  the  date  of  his  holding  office. 
Visitors  to  such  temples  would  be  familiar  with 
many  of  such  statues  by  which  the  memory  of 
these  high  officials  was  held  in  honour.  Again, 
Christ  promises  to  His  faithful  ones  better 
than  the  best  the  world  can  give.  On  each  of 
them  He  will  set  these  names — the  name  of  God, 
for  whose  pleasure  he  was  created ;  the  name  of 
the  new  society  of  the  redeemed,  to  which  he 
eternally  belongs ;  and  the  name  of  Christ,  in  that 
revelation  of  Himself  in  glory  which  is  neces- 
sarily concealed  from  those  who  still  dwell  in 
the  world.  What  these  names  were,  or  are  to 
be,  does  not  matter.  According  to  the  well- 
known  significance  of  the  word  in  the  Bible, 
they  express  the  character  of  that  to  which  they 
belong,  the  character  which  in  some  measure  has 
become  the  possession  of  those  who  receive  the 
name. 

The  promise,  therefore,  conveys  two  great 
assurances.  First,  that  Christ  will  place  on  the 
victor  an  outward  sign  by  which  he  will  be  known 


CHAPTER  III.  7-13  139 

to  be  God's,  not  merely  because  he  has  given 
himself  to  God,  but  also  because  God  has  chosen 
him,  accepted  him,  sealed  him  to  be  His  own. 
This  is,  indeed,  the  great  discovery  which  every 
man  makes  whose  heart  goes  out  in  any  degree 
towards  God,  namely,  that  his  own  action  is  only 
the  middle  term  between  two  movements  of  the 
Divine  Spirit,  the  first  calling  him,  the  second  a 
swift  response  to  the  human  answer,  sealing  that 
act  of  will.  Henceforth  it  is  not  on  his  own  faith 
or  faithfulness  that  his  confidence  is  based;  he 
hath  "this  seal "  :  "  The  Lord  knoweth  them  that 
are  his  "  ;  or,  as  the  Master  said  to  His  disciples, 
"  Ye  have  not  chosen  me,  but  I  have  chosen  you." 

And,  secondly,  the  name  itself  is  a  threefold 
one,  defining  him  that  overcometh  in  the  three 
dominant  relations  of  life,  and  so  holding  him  in 
perfect  equipoise  of  moral  being.  By  the  Father's 
name  he  is  claimed  and  protected  as  the  Father's 
child.  By  the  name  of  the  city  of  God  he  is 
admitted  and  declared  member  of  the  Divine 
Society  of  men,  fellow-citizen  of  the  Saints,  and 
partaker  of  the  heavenly  inheritance ;  and  by  the 
name  of  the  Eedeemer  bestowed  upon  him,  he  is 
enfeoffed  in  possession  of  the  new  character,  as 
one  who  is  made  in  the  likeness  of  Christ. 

"  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear  " — his 
calling  and  his  sure  reward ;  his  cahing  to  cleave 
to  what  is  noblest  in  life,  truest  in  thought,  purest 


140      THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

in  affection,  by  cleaving  to  Christ  as  his  Master, 
even  at  the  cost  of  being  at  issue  with  the  world  ; 
and  his  reward,  to  have  these  things  which  he 
knows  to  be  best,  nay,  to  be  alone  worthy  of  true 
manhood,  made  his  for  eternity,  not  alone  through 
his  own  effort,  but  by  the  sealing  and  confirming 
will  of  God. 


THE  LETTEK  TO  THE   CHUECH  AT 
LAODICEA 

Eev.  iii.  14-22 

These  things  saith  the  Amen,  the  faithful  and  true 
witness,  the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  God :  I  know  thy 
works,  that  thou  art  neither  hot  nor  cold:  I  would  thou 
wert  hot  or  cold.  So  because  thou  art  lukewarm,  and 
neither  hot  nor  cold,  I  will  speiu  thee  out  of  my  mouth. 
Because  thou  sayest,  I  am  rich,  and  have  gotten  riches,  and 
have  need  of  nothing ;  and  knowest  not  that  thou  art  th-e 
wretched  one  and  miserable  and  poor  and  blind  and  naked : 
I  counsel  thee  to  buy  of  me  gold  refined  by  fire,  that  thou 
mayest  become  rich  ;  and  white  garments,  that  thou  inayest 
clothe  thyself,  and  that  the  shame  of  thy  nakedness  be  not 
made  manifest ;  and  eyesalve  to  anoint  thine  eyes,  that  thou 
mayest  see.  As  many  as  I  love,  I  reprove  and  chasten  :  be 
zealous  therefore,  and  repent.  Behold,  I  stand  at  tJie  door 
and  knock :  if  any  man  hear  my  voice  and  open  the  door,  I 
will  come  in  to  him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he  with 
me.  He  that  overcometh,  I  will  give  to  him  to  sit  doion 
with  me  i/n  my  throne,  as  I  also  overcame,  and  sat  down 
with  my  Father  in  his  throne.  He  that  hath  an  ear,  let 
him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches  {B.V.). 

This,  the  last  of  the  letters  to  the  seven 
Churches,  is  the  letter  to  the  Church  which 
failed,   and,  strangely  enough,  this  Church  was 


142      THE   BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

found  in  a  city  which  had  failed  as  a  city  to 
carry  out  the  function  assigned  to  it.  For 
Laodicea  was  one  of  the  many  towns  which  were 
planted  or  founded  in  a  certain  place  for  the 
accomplishment  of  a  certain  purpose.  Like 
Philadelphia,  it  had  before  it  an  open  door,  but, 
unlike  Philadelphia,  it  had  made  little  or  no  use 
of  its  opportunity.  The  city  stood  about  midway 
up  the  long  valley-slope  along  which  the  great 
route  from  Ephesus  to  the  East  passed  up  to 
reach  the  central  plateau  of  Asia  Minor.  It  was 
one  of  the  outpost-gateways  between  West  and 
East.  Such  a  position  confers  great  advantages, 
but  carries  with  it  also  great  responsibilities.  It 
secures  a  steady  stream  of  travellers,  merchandise, 
knowledge,  wealth,  and  thereby  the  almost  certain 
prosperity  of  the  town  which  holds  it :  but  man 
as  well  as  God  expects  that  such  a  position  should 
be  used  in  order  to  spread  knowledge  and  influ- 
ence in  the  regions  beyond.  Laodicea  had  been 
planted  where  it  was  in  order  to  be  a  missionary 
city,  that  it  might  transmit  to  the  Phrygian 
highlands  beyond  it  some  of  those  stores  of 
Greek  civilisation  which  flowed  into  it  from 
the  West.  But,  for  some  reason  or  other  which 
cannot  now  be  traced,  Laodicea  had  failed  to 
fulfil  its  function.  In  modern  parlance,  its 
imports  of  such  things  largely  exceeded  its 
exports.     It  grew  wealthy,  luxurious,  ineffective, 


CHAPTER  III.   14-22  143 

and  dead.  The  district  beyond  it,  the  country 
of  Phrygia,  remained  to  the  end  less  influ- 
enced than  any  other  part  of  this  Hinterland 
by  the  Greek  spirit,  the  Greek  language,  and  the 
Greek  civilisation.  There  is  thus  a  curious  corre- 
spondence between  the  history  of  the  city  and  the 
character  of  the  Church  of  Christ  within  it.  It 
also  had  failed  to  fulfil  its  function.  For  the 
Church  also  had  been  planted  where  it  was  in 
order  that  it  might  let  its  light  shine  to  those  who 
were  in  darkness  beyond.  It  had  received  from 
the  hand  of  its  Founder  all  manner  of  favour 
and  benefaction,  grace  and  guidance,  wisdom  and 
sanctification.  But  it  failed  to  pass  on  the 
heavenly  gifts  to  others,  and  so  it  failed  to  profit  by 
them.  And  the  cause  of  this  failure  was  want  of 
enthusiasm,  of  glad  simplicity  in  the  enjoyment 
of  God's  goodness,  of  full  surrender  to  His  will. 
The  Church  of  Laodicea  was  rich,  and  comfort- 
able, and  well  pleased  with  itself,  but  sick  unto 
death  with  indifference. 

To  this  Church  comes  this  letter  full  of  menace 
and  reproach.  It  opens  with  a  threefold  descrip- 
tion of  Himself,  in  which  the  Divine  Speaker 
appears  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  Church  which 
He  addresses.  It  is  feeble  and  vacillating  ;  He  is 
the  Amen,  steadfast  and  immovable.  It  is  un- 
certain and  ineffective  in  its  action.  He  is 
''faithful  and  sure."     It  prides  itself  on  its  con- 


144     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

nection  with  things  created  by  man;  He  is  "  the 
beginning  of  the  creation  of  God,"  the  incipient 
principle  or  source  of  all  created  being.  The 
aspect  in  which  the  Lord  of  the  Church  thus 
presents  Himself  prepares  us  for  the  tone  of  the 
letter.  The  contrast  which  is  immediately  felt 
between  His  character  and  that  of  the  community 
w^hich  represents  Him  in  Laodicea  already  implies 
its  condemnation.  And  the  effect  of  the  conse- 
quent judgment  was  already  apparent ;  for  con- 
science itself  had  lost  its  authority,  and  the  Church 
at  Laodicea  did  not  know  that  it  was  a  miserable 
thing,  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked.  In  such  a  case 
time  could  only  make  more  and  more  manifest  the 
inward  incompetence  for  life,  and,  though  there  is 
solemn  warning  here,  there  is  no  suggestion  that 
the  warning  will  be  taken.  The  condemnation,  so 
far  as  the  Church  is  concerned,  is  absolute. 

"  I  know  thy  works  "  ;  but  there  is  none  worthy 
to  be  recorded.  They  are  all  negative,  vain,  and 
worthless  in  God's  sight.  There  is  not  even 
the  patience  of  Ephesus,  or  the  tribulation  and 
poverty  of  Smyrna ;  there  is  no  resistance  against 
false  teaching,  no  love,  good  faith,  or  ministry, 
nothing  which  the  searching  and  wistful  eye  of 
the  Master  can  put  down  to  the  credit  of  this 
Church.  It  has  taken  from  God  all  that  it  knew 
how,  and  it  has  kept  it  all  to  itself.  The  con- 
demnation is  therefore  unqualified,  and  it  rests 


CHAPTEE  III.   14-22  145 

not  upon  the  absence  of  the  proper  works,  but 
on  the  temper  or  character  to  which  that  absence 
is  due.  "  Thou  art  neither  cold  nor  hot."  The 
adjectives,  particularly  that  rendered  "hot,"  are 
such  as  are  peculiarly  suited  to  water;  and 
the  figure  in  the  following  verse  is  based  upon 
the  nauseating  effect  of  water  which  is  neither 
hot  nor  cold,  but  lukewarm.  The  condition 
represented  by  the  word  **cold"  is  the  extreme 
opposite  of  the  spiritual  fervour  and  zeal  signified 
by  "hot";  it  is  something  more  than  mere 
"  spiritual  coldness."  What  we  understand  by 
that  was  precisely  the  condition  in  which  the 
Laodiceans  were  found,  a  condition  of  luke- 
warmness  to  which  entire  extreme  would  have 
been  preferable.  "  I  would  thou  wert  cold  or  hot.* 
The  principle  underlying  such  a  statement  is 
the  fact  of  observation  recorded  in  the  Gospel, 
"Verily  I  say  unto  you  (the  priests  and  rehgious 
leaders  of  the  people),  that  the  publicans  and  the 
harlots  go  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  before  you." 
In  the  religious  history  of  many  the  dawn  seems 
to  be  the  enemy  of  the  day.  Better  than  a  com- 
parative warmth,  with  which  a  man  is  apt  to 
rest  content,  would  be  the  absolute  cold  which 
would  impel  him  to  seek  the  Sun  of  Eighteous- 
ness.  So  it  was  with  this  Church.  The  inner 
fire  was  wanting,  whereby  the  gifts  and  grace  of 
God,  together  with  the  opportunities  of  hfe, 
11 


146     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

might  have  been  fused  and  transmuted  into 
works  precious  in  His  sight  and  beneficent  to 
all  around.  The  talents  entrusted  to  it  lodged 
with  it  useless ;  and  the  reason  was  that  it  had 
taken  the  gift  of  God  in  a  grudging  and  unthank- 
ful spirit.  It  had  doubtless  all  the  outward 
marks  of  a  Church,  the  officers,  the  stated 
worship,  the  prayers,  hymns,  and  preaching  of 
the  word,  but — 

"  Ah  I  its  heart,  its  heart  was  stone, 
And  so  it  could  not  thrive." 

The  truth,  which  both  Churches  and  the 
individuals  of  which  they  are  composed  are 
always  in  danger  of  forgetting,  is  that  God  looks 
for  love  from  those  whom  He  has  redeemed,  and 
for  those  signs  by  which  love  naturally  expresses 
itself.  We  recall  how  the  Eisen  Christ  searched 
the  heart  of  Peter  in  order  to  draw  out  the  ex- 
pression of  that  love ;  how  in  earHer  days  He 
had  reproached  the  Pharisee  for  the  absence  of 
all  tokens  of  sincere  affection  ("Thou  gavest  me 
no  kiss"),  and  tenderly  confirmed  the  lavishing 
of  such  tokens  upon  Himself  by  the  hands  of  the 
penitent  woman.  In  these  signs  and  in  the  love 
they  signified  He  saw  the  proof  that  her  heart  was 
truly  melted  before  God,  that  the  Divine  grace 
of  forgiveness  had  reached  her.  And  so,  the 
expression  of  dislike  and  contempt  so  rare  with 


CHAPTEE  III.  14-22  147 

Him,  is  reserved  for  those  who  are  "neither  cold 
nor  hot,"  who  are  warmed,  as  it  were,  by  others' 
fires,  and  have  no  love-fire  of  their  own.  That 
they  are  not  fervent  in  their  love  hinders  His  joy 
and  their  fruitfulness  ;  that  they  are  not  cold 
checks  His  compassion  and  their  sense  of  need. 
*'No  heart  is  pure  that  is  not  passionate,  no 
virtue  safe  that  is  not  enthusiastic."  The  Church 
at  Laodicea  fell  under  the  condemnation  of  those 
so  bitingly  described  by  Dante  :  **  This  miserable 
doom  they  bear,  of  those  wretched  souls  that 
lived  without  incurring  infamy  or  deserving 
praise,  mingled  with  the  caitiff  crew  of  angels 
who  were  neither  rebels  nor  loyal  towards  God, 
but  stood  for  themselves  alone." 

This  temper  of  self-protecting  caution,  which 
will  not  commit  itself  wholly  even  to  God,  both 
springs  from,  and  further  ministers  to,  melancholy 
self-deception.  Between  the  soul  that  is  not  cast 
on  God  and  the  true  basis  of  life  and  well-being 
there  is  still  space  for  the  intrusion  of  other 
grounds  of  confidence.  In  Laodicea  these  were 
found  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  of  this 
world.  The  self-satisfaction  of  the  Church  there 
was  due  in  the  end  to  the  fact  that  it  was  rich, 
could  provide  itself  with  all  it  wanted,  and  meet 
all  claims — but  the  claims  of  God.  For  riches 
are  a  snare  to  a  community  no  less  than  to  an 
individual     The  Church   at   Smyrna  was  poor, 


148     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

and  poor  in  the  midst  of  a  wealthy  city.  Its 
members  may  have  looked  not  seldom  with 
envious  eyes  upon  the  easy  circumstances  of  the 
sister-Church  at  Laodicea.  But  see  what  a  letter 
Smyrna  received  from  her  Lord,  and  compare  it 
with  this  to  Laodicea !  And  yet  it  might  have 
been  otherwise.  The  grace  of  God  is  sufficient 
not  only  for  the  poor,  but  also  for  the  rich.  Had 
Laodicea  refused  to  be  misled  by  her  outward 
prosperity,  had  she  known  her  true  need,  misery, 
and  nakedness,  there  was  One  who  had  been  able 
to  supply  even  her  need,  to  heal  even  her  misery. 
It  would  have  been  a  strange  prayer,  and  yet 
would  it  not  have  been  a  wise  one,  "  0  Christ, 
have  mercy  upon  us,  for  we  are  a  wealthy 
Church"? 

Whether  there  was  still  a  chance  of  such 
becoming  the  prayer  of  the  Church  at  Laodicea, 
we  cannot  tell.  But  counsel  is  given  to  it  as 
though  there  were.  And  the  counsel  is  blended  of 
irony  and  kindness.  The  irony  lies  in  the  allu- 
sions, obvious  enough  to  the  first  readers  of  the 
letter,  to  things  for  which  Laodicea  was  famous, 
the  very  things  on  which  its  inhabitants  prided 
themselves.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  a  great 
commercial  and  financial  centre,  famous  for  its 
banking  and  exchange.  When  it  was  visited 
by  Cicero  in  B.C.  51,  he  carried  with  him  bank 
drafts  to  be  cashed  there,  and  its  prosperity  and 


CHAPTER  III.   14-22  149 

banking  facilities  had  not  diminished  in  the 
interval.  Laodicea  was  renowned  also  for  its 
manufacture  of  fabrics,  the  materials  for  which 
were  supplied  by  the  glossy  black  fleece  of  a 
particular  breed  of  sheep,  and  for  outer  garments 
fashioned  of  this  fabric.  To  have  a  cloak  from 
Laodicea  was  like  being  dressed  in  Eussian  furs. 
Naked  indeed !  There  was  no  one  more  com- 
fortably dressed  than  the  people  who  went  to 
that  church.  And  there  was  a  third  thing  for 
which  the  city  was  famous — its  medical  school. 
Its  physicians  were  disciples  of  a  particular 
pharmaceutical  principle  according  to  which  what 
were  called  compound  diseases  required  to  be 
treated  with  compound  medicines ;  and  they 
prided  themselves  on  the  combinations  of  drugs 
which  they  had  invented.  Galen  refers  to  a 
special  kind  of  ointment  which  was  originally 
prepared  only  in  Laodicea ;  and  there  was  also 
a  medicine  for  the  eyes  which  is  described  as 
Phrygian,  Phrygian  stone,  or  Phrygian  powder, 
and  was  exported  to  all  parts  of  the  Greek  and 
Eoman  world.  And,  strangely  enough,  these 
medicines  were  commonly  made  up  in  the  form 
of  a  small  cylinder  of  compressed  powder,  the 
technical  name  for  which  was  "Kollyrium,"  the 
same  word  as  is  used  in  verse  18  and  translated 
*'  eyesalve." 
We  can  now  perceive  both  the  irony  and  the 


150     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

kindness  of  the  counsel  to  the  Church  which 
dwelt  in  this  city.  These  are  the  things  on  which 
you  pride  yourselves,  the  wealth  which  is  stored 
in  your  banks,  the  dark  glossy  garments  in  which 
you  are  dressed,  the  world-famous  medicines  by 
which  you  profess  to  cure  all  manner  of  diseases. 
But  if  you  knew  what  is  the  true  riches,  true 
clothing,  true  health,  you  would  come  to  Me, 
and  seek  them  from  My  hand.  Your  banks 
and  wealthy  money-changers  can  give  you  only 
the  gold  which  perisheth :  I  give  the  gold  which 
is  current  for  eternity.  Your  richest  clothing 
leaves  you  naked  and  ashamed  before  God;  I 
have  the  garment  of  righteousness  to  give,  in 
which  even  he  that  hath  been  a  sinner  may 
stand  before  God,  and  not  be  ashamed.  Your 
physicians  offer  a  cure  for  everything,  but  there  is 
a  blindness  which  they  cannot  cure.  It  is  Mine  to 
cure  that,  to  remove  the  blindness  that  prevents 
men  from  seeing  "  the  King  in  his  beauty,  and 
the  land  that  is  far  off."  In  a  word,  whatever 
the  world  offers,  to  make  men  easy  and  com- 
fortable in  the  life  that  is  now,  Christ  offers 
something  that  corresponds  to  it  in  kind,  but  is 
real,  transcendent,  and  adequate  to  the  needs  of 
man  as  a  creature  of  eternity. 

Whether  the  Church  at  Laodicea  was  still  able 
to  hear  what  was  said  unto  it  by  the  Spirit,  to 
accept  and  act  upon  this  counsel,  we  have  no 


CHAPTEK  III.   14-22  151 

means  of  knowing.  There  is  something  in  the 
tone  of  the  letter  which  disposes  ns  to  think  not. 
It  recalls  the  tone  of  such  sayings  as  "Ye  would 
not  come  unto  me,  that  ye  might  have  life." 
And  the  picture  of  the  Church  which  it  suggests 
is  one  of  "ghastly,  smooth  life,  dead  at  heart,"  to 
which  an  offer  such  as  this  would  only  too  likely 
be  made  in  vain. 

This  is  not,  however,  the  whole  of  the  letter, 
and  what  follows  furnishes  striking  and  welcome 
evidence  of  the  pertinacity  of  the  Divine  com- 
passion. Thwarted  and  rejected,  as  it  seems  to 
have  been  by  the  Church  as  a  whole,  it  turns  with 
exquisite  tenderness  to  the  individual  member  of 
that  Church,  and  for  him  the  letter  which  opens 
so  sadly  closes  with  a  new  prospect  of  hope  and 
victory. 

Professor  Kamsay  regards  these  last  verses 
(20-22)  as  not  forming  part  of  the  letter  to 
Laodicea,  but  rather  a  general  epilogue  to  the 
whole  series.  By  this  means  he  eliminates  what 
seems  to  him  a  difficulty,  viz.,  that  '*  after  the 
extremely  sharp  condemnation  of  Laodicea,  it 
seems  hardly  consistent  to  give  it  the  honour 
which  is  awarded  to  the  true  and  courageous 
Church  of  Philadelphia  alone  among  the  seven, 
and  to  rank  it  among  those  whom  the  Author 
loves."  But  this  difficulty  is  more  simply  removed 
if  we  recognise  that  at  the  beginning  of  verse  20 


152      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

the  Author  turns  from  the  Church  to  the  indi- 
vidual, in  this  case  anticipating  the  transition, 
which  in  the  other  letters  is  marked  by  the 
promise  to  him  "that  overcometh."  And  to  let 
the  letter  to  Laodicea  break  off  at  verse  19  is  to 
leave  it  too  obviously  a  fragment,  destroying  the 
symmetry  which  is  so  marked  a  characteristic  of 
the  whole  series  by  supposing  that  this  letter 
alone  was  sent  without  any  promise  to  him  that 
overcometh,  and  without  the  closing  rubric,  '*He 
that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit 
saith  to  the  churches." 

"Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door"  of  each  indi- 
vidual heart  in  this  Church  at  Laodicea,  "and 
knock"  there.  It  is  in  entire  accordance  with 
the  whole  tenor  of  the  Gospel  that  right  here, 
where  the  condition  of  the  community  is  most 
sad,  the  gracious  interest  of  God  in  the  individual 
should  be  most  emphatically  expressed.  The 
corporate  life  has  ceased  to  be  the  medium  of 
true  Christian  experience,  the  instrument  of 
fellowship  with  Christ.  But  the  individual  need 
not  for  that  reason  miss  the  experience  or  lose 
the  fellowship.  Eather  does  he  become  the  object 
of  the  Master's  special  care ;  and  to  him  is  offered 
a  fellowship  of  a  specially  personal  and  intimate 
kind.  "  If  any  man  hear  my  voice  and  open  the 
door,  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and  will  sup  with 
him,  and  he  with  me." 


CHAPTEE  III.   14-22  153 

Thus  the  most  gracious  invitation,  and  also  the 
most  glorious  promise,  are  addressed  to  those 
Christians  for  whom  the  conditions  of  spiritual 
life  were  most  difficult.  To  a  humble  disciple 
of  Christ  it  might  be  put  thus :  Supposing  you 
found  yourself  forming  part  of  a  community  to 
which  such  a  letter  as  this  could,  or  ought  to  be, 
addressed ;  if  there  seemed  to  be  neither  life  nor 
love  in  the  professing  Christians  round  you,  if 
you  felt  that  they  must  needs  fall  under  the 
condemnation  of  this  letter,  and  you  with  them, 
then  with  what  urgency  of  Divine  tenderness 
would  this  closing  message  come  home  to  your 
heart !  The  Church  may  be  **  dead,"  but  if  there 
is  one  within  its  doors  who  can  hear  the  voice,  if 
there  be  one  who  will  arise  and  open,  then  this 
promise  is  for  him.  The  Christian  fellowship 
which  I  seek  may  be  hollow,  or  cold,  or  non- 
existent, but  here  is  One  who  offers  to  come  in, 
even  to  "  the  bare  lodging  of  my  soul,"  to  be  my 
Guest  and  to  make  me  His,  to  spread  before  me 
all  I  need  for  the  soul's  nourishment  and  peace 
and  joy.  Those  around  me  may  seem  to  have 
given  up  the  struggle.  They  neither  achieve  nor 
seek  victory  over  self  and  the  world.  Am  I  so 
entangled  and  identified  with  their  failure,  their 
indifference,  that  I  must  needs  partake  in  their 
rejection,  their  condemnation?  This  promise 
says,  Nay.    We  are  "  members  one  of  another," 


154     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

but  we  are  also  in  individual  touch  with  God. 
I  need  not,  I  must  not,  be  dragged  down  by  my 
surroundings.  My  Master  calleth  me  by  name, 
singles  me  out  with  personal  recognition,  offers 
me  His  personal  fellowship.  And  to  him  **  that 
overcometh"  in  circumstances  such  as  these  is 
made  a  further  promise  of  unexampled  privilege  : 
"I  will  give  to  him  to  sit  down  with  me  in  my 
throne."  One  who  has  so  deeply  identified 
himself  with  Christ  in  the  disappointment,  the 
sorrow,  the  pain,  prepared  for  Him  by  such  a 
Church  as  that  at  Laodicea,  shall  equally  be 
identified  with  Him  in  the  glory  which  He 
receives  of  the  Father. 


THE  VISION  OF  THE  THINGS 
THAT  AKE 

Key.  iv.,  v. 

The  kernel  of  the  Book  of  Kevelation  is  probably 
to  be  found  in  the  Vision  of  Judgment  which 
begins  with  the  opening  of  the  sealed  book 
in  the  sixth  chapter,  and  ends  with  the  pouring 
of  the  bowls  in  the  sixteenth.  The  chapters 
which  precede  this  central  section  are  in- 
tended to  prepare  for  it  by  preparing  the  minds 
of  the  readers  of  the  book  for  these  predictions 
of  judgment ;  the  chapters  which  follow  contain, 
for  the  most  part,  the  elaboration  of  one  or  other 
of  the  elements  in  the  Vision  of  Judgment. 
After  the  introduction  proper,  contained  in  the 
first  chapter,  the  letters  to  the  seven  Churches 
have  served  to  arrest  the  attention,  to  quicken 
the  conscience,  and  to  confirm  the  steadfastness 
of  these  individual  communities  of  Christ's 
people,  while  at  the  same  time  indicating  both 
the  weaknesses  and  the  opportunities  of  the 
Universal  Church.    Already,  the  way  seems  open 

155 


156     THE  BOOK  OF  BEVELATION 

for  the  detailed  description  of  the  "  tribulation," 
the  "hour  of  trial  which  is  to  come  upon  all 
the  world,"  the  unfolding  of  the  impending 
Judgment.  But  there  remains  something  still 
for  the  Apostle  to  do ;  and  that  is  to  unveil  the 
heavenly  and  eternal  background,  in  front  of 
which  these  coming  events  are  to  be  transacted  ; 
and  to  this  he  addresses  himself  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  chapters. 

In  these  wonderful  chapters  he  describes,  under 
the  form  of  a  vision,  two  different  but  closely 
related  scenes  in  heaven.  Each  scene  is  full  of 
rich  and  suggestive  details  ;  but  these  we  pass 
over  lightly  in  order  to  show  the  meaning  of  these 
scenes  as  separate  but  related  wholes,  their  rela- 
tion to  the  Book  of  Kevelation  as  a  whole,  and 
the  relation  of  what  they  describe  to  human  life 
as  a  whole. 

The  fourth  chapter  relates  how  the  Apostle 
in  a  vision  saw,  as  it  were,  a  door  opened  in  the 
sky,  through  which  he  passed  at  the  summons 
of  a  trumpet-clear  voice,  bidding  him  "come  up 
hither."  And,  being  "  in  the  Spirit,"  translated 
on  to  the  plane  of  the  Eternal,  he  beholds,  at  one 
glance,  a  scene  corresponding  to  that  which  had 
been  seen  and  described  by  the  great  prophets 
of  old,  by  Isaiah  and  by  Ezekiel — the  heavenly 
court  of  the  King  of  Kings,  in  the  centre  the 
Almighty,  high    and    lifted   up,    throned   above 


CHAPTEES  IV,  V.  157 

all  worlds,  veiled  in  light  unapproachable,  yet 
known,  His  presence  scintillating  with  the 
brilliance  of  the  diamond,  glowing  like  a  cor- 
nelian, with  the  concentrated  redness  of  a 
furnace,  and  yet  overarched  with  fresh  and 
living  green  as  of  an  emerald.  Blinding  brilliancy, 
the  glow  of  a  consuming  fire,  the  soft  radiance 
of  rainbow  promise,  these  were  the  contrasted 
elements  in  the  impression  made  upon  the  Seer 
by  the  vision  of  "  him  who  sat  upon  the  throne." 
On  either  side  of  the  throne  he  saw  twelve 
other  ** thrones"  coming  forward  so  as  partly 
to  enclose  a  space  in  front  of  it ;  and  on  these 
were  seated  the  four-and-twenty  "  elders,"  as 
they  are  called.  There  has,  of  course,  been  much 
discussion  as  to  what  kind  of  beings  we  are  to 
understand  by  these  "elders,"  or  whom  they 
represent.  To  see  in  them  the  Patriarchs  and 
Apostles,  or  the  Prophets  and  the  Apostles,  is 
tempting  but  not  possible.  For  they  are  not 
beings  of  earthly,  but  of  heavenly,  rank.  They 
are  of  the  order  of  angels.  From  Isaiah  (xxiv.  23) 
we  learn  that  this  name  of  "  elders  "  was  in  fact 
given  to  certain  angelic  beings,  who  seem  to  have 
been  regarded  as  a  kind  of  Divine  consistory 
assembled  in  the  presence  of  God.  The  idea 
reappears  in  one  of  the  Jewish  Apocalj^ses, 
where  we  read,  "  They  brought  before  my  face 
the  elders  and  the  rulers  of  the  order  of    the 


158     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

stars " ;  and  it  is  probably  illustrated  by  St. 
Paul's  reference  to  "  thrones  and  dominions " 
among  the  "things  invisible."  "What  the  Seer 
beholds,  therefore,  is  not  the  representatives  of 
any  earthly  Church  or  order  in  the  Church,  but 
a  group  of  angelic  beings  v^hose  presence  in  the 
heavenly  court  was  part  of  the  ancient  Jewish 
tradition  on  the  subject. 

The  case  is  similar  with  the  four  *' living 
creatures."  They  correspond  with  the  four 
"cherubim"  in  the  vision  of  Ezekiel.  They 
are  the  personification  of  the  forces  set  in 
motion  by  the  will  of  God,  whereby  His  throne 
is  supported,  His  authority  maintained.  Their 
distinguishing  characteristic  is  in  their  eternal 
watchfulness,  their  sleepless  observation  of  all 
that  transpires  in  heaven  or  on  earth.  *'Full 
of  eyes  before  and  behind,"  they  observe  and 
reflect  on  all  sides  the  Divine  majesty  of 
Creation. 

Like  the  foregoing,  the  rest  of  the  imagery  of 
this  scene  is  drawn  from  various  passages  in  the 
Old  Testament.  The  "lightnings  and  voices 
and  thunder"  were  heard  in  connection  with 
the  great  Theophany  at  Sinai,  when  the  Law 
was  given  to  Moses.  The  "glassy  sea  as  of 
crystal  "  goes  back  to  the  account  of  the  Creation 
in  Genesis,  and  the  "  waters  above  the  firma- 
ment "  which  separate  the  created  world  from 


CHAPTEKS  IV,  V.  169 

heaven,  a  conception  which  was  symbolised  in 
later  times  by  the  "molten  sea"  of  the  Temple. 
It  matters  not  whether  all  these  details  actually 
impressed  themselves  on  the  mind  of  the  Seer  as 
he  beheld  the  vision,  or  whether  the  essential  part 
of  the  vision,  God  in  His  unapproachable  glory 
as  Creator,  came  naturally,  as  he  afterwards 
described  it,  to  be  clothed  in  forms  of  thought 
and  of  language  which  had  been  hallowed  by 
the  tradition  of  centuries ;  the  effect,  if  not  the 
purpose,  of  the  details  is  to  enrich  the  picture,  to 
intensify  the  impression  of  the  Divine  glory  as 
John  beheld  it,  and  to  explain  the  source  of  the 
great  hymn  of  praise  which  is  the  climax  both 
of  the  vision  and  of  the  chapter. 

For  the  four  *' living  creatures"  rest  not  day 
nor  night  from  the  great  chant  in  which,  as 
representing  all  His  works,  they  hymn  the  glory 
of  Almighty  God.  And  whenever  the  cadence 
of  their  song  reaches  its  rhythmic  change,  the 
four-and-twenty  representatives  of  the  angelic 
host  repeat  their  worship,  "  casting  their  crowns 
before  the  throne,"  and  add  their  song:  "  Worthy 
art  thou,  our  Lord  and  our  God,  to  receive  the 
glory  and  the  honour  and  the  power:  for  thou 
didst  create  all  things,  and  because  of  thy  will 
they  were,  and  were  created."  This  last  sentence 
at  once  gives  us  the  burden  of  their  song,  and 
prepares  us  to  find  it  supplemented,  as  it  is  in  the 


160     THE  BOOK  OF  BEVELATION 

following  chapter.  It  is  a  hymn  of  praise  to  the 
Creator,  offered  by  creatures  or  beings  wholly  of 
heavenly  origin  and  unsullied  purity.  "  They 
think  of  Creation  and  its  wonder,  of  the  heavens 
which  declare  God's  glory,  and  the  firmament 
w^hich  shows  forth  his  handiwork;  of  sun  and 
moon  and  stars  in  their  manifold  and  resplendent 
glories ;  of  the  mountains  and  the  valleys ;  of  the 
rivers  and  the  fountains  of  waters;  of  the  rich 
exuberance  of  life  in  all  its  forms  from  the 
tiniest  animalcule  up  to  the  noblest  creature, 
man.  Their  thought  penetrates  to  the  almost 
infinite  abysses  of  space,  and  finds  there  the  like 
evidence  of  the  power,  the  wisdom,  and  the 
majesty  of  God."  How  often  has  the  impulse  to 
echo  this  hymn  come  to  us  as  we  stood  beneath 
the  high- vaulted  sky  of  night,  "  thick  inlaid  with 
patines  of  bright  gold,"  "when  Hesperus  with 
the  host  of  heaven  came." 

The  powers  and  privileges  of  such  angelio 
beings  as  we  here  read  about  are  beyond  our 
ken;  but  let  us  suppose  that  they  include  a 
knowledge  of  the  wonderful  works  of  God  in 
all  places  of  His  dominion  as  minute  as  our 
knowledge  of  this  single  world,  and  we  shall 
not  wonder  if  the  spectacle  of  His  creative  power 
is  such  as  to  fill  their  life  with  ceaseless  praise. 

But  there  is  one  note  in  the  complete  octave 
of  praise  which  is  not  sounded  in  this  chapter, 


CHAPTEKS  IV.,  V.  161 

one  instrument  which  is  missing  from  this 
orchestra  of  praise.  The  voice  of  man  is  not 
heard  in  this  song;  and  with  all  its  richness 
and  fulness  we  listen  in  vain  for  the  note  of 
love,  of  joy  in  the  mercy  as  well  as  the  power 
and  glory  of  God.  These  follow  in  the  fifth 
chapter,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  they  are 
rightly  studied  together ;  these  two  chapters  are 
not  only  counterparts  the  one  of  the  other, 
the  second  is  needed  to  complete  the  first.  To 
the  description  of  the  eternal  adoration  of  the 
Almighty  as  the  Creator  is  now  added  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  adoration  of  the  Lamb  as  Redeemer. 
But  both  Creation  and  Redemption  have  a  future 
as  well  as  a  past.  He  who  created  all  things 
"according  to  his  will"  is  yet  to  make  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth.  And  so  He  who  has 
already  purchased  men  to  God  has  still  a  work  to 
do  in  the  application  of  redemption  to  human 
history.  The  future  is  under  the  hand  of  Him 
that  once  was  slain,  and  the  token  thereof  is  that 
He  alone  has  the  power  to  open  the  Book  which 
contains  its  secrets. 

The  scene  described  in  the  fifth  chapter  is  once 
more  described  as  beheld  by  the  Apostle  under 
the  conditions  of  a  vision.  The  details  are  not 
such  as  can  be  followed  or  understood  under  the 
conditions  of  waking  life  or  fitted  into  one  stable 
picture.  They  all  combine  to  convey  and  in- 
12 


162      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

tensify  one  impression,  the  right  and  claim  of 
"the  Lamb,"  and  of  ''the  Lamb"  alone,  to  the 
control  of  the  future.  The  Apostle  sees  lying  on 
the  hand  of  the  Almighty  the  Book  wherein  are 
written  the  judgments  of  God,  "  the  things  which 
are  to  be  hereafter."  On  the  unseaHng  of  this 
Book  and  the  revelation  of  its  contents  depends 
the  possibility  of  counselling  and  encouraging  in 
advance  the  trembling  Churches  of  Christ;  and 
the  heart  of  the  Seer  is  heavy  as  he  realises  that 
even  in  heaven  no  one  can  be  found  who  is 
worthy  to  open  the  Book.  The  encouragement 
which  is  thereupon  offered  to  him  by  one  of  the 
angelic  powers  is  couched  in  the  phraseology  of 
Jewish  expectation  of  the  Messiah :  "  Behold, 
the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  Root  of 
David,  hath  overcome  to  open  the  book  and 
the  seven  seals  thereof."  But  when  the  pro- 
mised figure  of  the  One  who  is  worthy  appears 
He  is  seen  under  the  figure  of  a  Lamb,  a  Lamb 
''as  though  it  had  been  slain,"  slain  in  sacrifice, 
as  the  word  suggests.  The  Word  and  the  Lamb  : 
these  represent  the  aspects  of  Christ's  person  and 
work  which  are  characteristic  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  and  it  is  important  to  observe  that  in 
this  book,  which  claims  to  be  by  John,  and  here 
alone  outside  the  Fourth  Gospel,  He  appears  as 
the  Lamb  and  as  the  Word. 
In  the  action  of  the  scene  which  follows,  we 


CHAPTERS  IV.,   V.  163 

may  perceive  how  freely  the  Apostle  handles  the 
figures  which  form  his  picture  or  fill  his  vision. 
The  "Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah"  is  the  Messiah; 
the  ''Lamb"  is  the  Eedeemer  who  once  was  slain. 
The  two  figures,  sharply  contrasted  as  they  seem, 
coalesce,  melt  into  one  another,  and  all  the  while 
present  Him  whom  they  symbolise,  Christ  Jesus 
the  Saviour.  The  forms  into  which  the  thought 
is  poured  are  all  so  plastic,  so  filmy,  and  symbolic 
in  their  quality  that  it  would  be  wholly  false  to 
the  Apostle's  method  to  force  a  literal  meaning 
upon  the  details.  And  yet  for  that  very  reason 
what  lies  behind  and  below  the  forms  seems  by 
contrast  only  the  more  solid  and  substantial 
because  of  their  fluidity.  We  see  the  like  in 
Nature,  when  standing  for  hours  on  some  Alpine 
slope  we  look  across  the  valley  to  where  some 
peak  rises  fourteen  thousand  feet  into  the  sky,  and 
see  only  hints  of  its  great  shape  through  the 
clouds  which  cling  about  it,  suggesting  yet  re- 
fusing to  disclose  its  form.  The  impression  of 
that  peak's  solidity  and  majesty  is  only  enhanced 
by  the  fleeting,  changing  garments  in  which  it  is 
encased  whenever  a  rent  in  the  cloud-covering 
reveals  the  solid  fact  which  gives  all  the  scene 
its  character.  In  like  manner  these  elusive, 
changeful  symbols  which  are  flung  over  the 
central  figure  of  this  scene  only  enhance  its 
majesty  and  imposing  power,  when  at  the  last 


164      THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

it  stands  fully  revealed  in  the  burst  of  universal 
praise  with  which  the  chapter  closes. 

This  is  the  fact  of  Kedemption  through  the 
Lamb  that  was  slain.  It  is  this  that  makes  Him 
worthy,  when  none  else  could  be  found  worthy, 
to  open  the  Book ;  it  is  due  to  this  that  the  future 
of  God's  people  is  in  His  hand.  "  Worthy  art 
thou,  for  thou  wast  slain,  and  didst  purchase 
unto  God  men  of  every  tribe  and  tongue  and 
people  and  nation ;  and  they  reign  upon  earth." 
Even  in  the  midst  of  the  tribulation  which 
impends  they  will  still  be  **  kings,"  reigning 
royally  over  life  through  "  him  that  loved  "  them. 

This  song  breaks  first  from  the  lips  of  the 
heavenly  host,  from  the  four  living  creatures, 
and  the  four-and-twenty  "elders";  but  it  is 
caught  up  by  voices  which  have  not  been  heard 
as  yet.  Created  things  not  only  in  heaven  but 
also  on  earth  add  their  harmonies  to  swell  this 
song.  For  now,  through  the  salvation  which  has 
been  wrought  by  the  Lamb,  a  place  has  been 
made  for  them  along  with  the  unfallen  angels,  the 
beings  unstained  by  sin ;  and  the  theme  of  their 
rejoicing  worship  is  not  the  Eedemption  only,  but 
to  that  they  add  the  Creation  too,  which  in  the 
preceding  chapter  had  been  hymned  by  the  angels 
alone.  The  worship  which  these  had  offered  "  to 
him  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,"  and  the 
worship  which   is  offered  by  earth  and  heaven 


CHAPTEKS  IV.,  V.  165 

to  the  Lamb,  now  flow  together  in  one  stream. 
All  God's  creatures  join  to  sing  the  double  Hymn 
of  Creation  and  Eedemption,  wherein  the  glory 
of  God  is  complete.  **  Unto  him  that  sitteth  on 
the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb,  be  the  blessing, 
and  the  honour,  and  the  glory,  and  the  dominion, 
for  ever  and  ever." 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  human 
language,  even  the  language  of  an  inspired  man, 
breaks  down  in  the  attempt  to  depict  such  a 
scene  as  this.  And  it  is  not  a  little  significant 
that  in  each  of  these  chapters  the  situation 
becomes  clear,  the  meaning  of  the  vision  steals 
into  our  hearts,  when  we  hear  the  burst  of  praise. 
Is  not  this  the  reason  why  praise  forms  so  impor- 
tant a  part  of  worship,  not  only  that  it  is  our  due 
to  God,  but  that  it  is  the  vehicle  for  expressing, 
and  so  of  realising,  thought  and  emotion  which 
lie  too  deep  for  words,  "  fancies  which  break 
through  language  and  escape,"  high  pulsations 
of  triumphant  joy,  for  which  the  utmost  that 
words  can  do  is  to  lend  them  wings? 

The  glory  of  God  the  Creator,  **  upholding  all 
things  by  the  word  of  his  power,"  that  is  the 
fact  revealed  to  John  in  the  first  of  these  visions, 
and  revealed  with  blinding  splendour.  The  glory  of 
Christ  the  Redeemer,  who  has  made  of  His  people 
*' a  kingdom  and  priests  upon  earth,"  that  is  the 
fact  revealed  in  the  second  vision,  revealed  with 


166      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

overwhelming  power.  Now,  what  purpose  did 
these  visions  serve  in  the  work  to  which  John 
was  appointed,  and  why  does  he  record  them  just 
here  ?  The  answer  is  that  these  two  facts  form 
the  background  of  all  history,  and  it  is  in  the 
presence  of  these  facts  that  all  events  on  earth 
can  alone  be  properly  understood.  It  would  be 
well,  indeed,  if  we  could  find  a  better  word  than 
*'  background  "  ;  and  in  using  it  we  must  be  care- 
ful to  avoid  all  suggestion  that  what  stands  there 
is  of  inferior  importance.  Rather  are  these  the 
unchanging  facts,  in  the  presence  of  which  the 
changing  scenes  of  human  life  and  history  are 
set.  These  are  the  facts  against  which  all  other 
facts  have  to  be  viewed  in  order  to  know  their 
true  meaning  and  to  appraise  their  just  value. 

That  being  so,  it  is  easy  to  see  the  importance 
of  these  chapters  for  St.  John's  immediate 
purpose.  He  is  about  to  unroll  the  book  of 
destiny,  to  describe  its  contents,  the  judgments, 
the  woes,  the  chastisements,  which  are  to  fall 
upon  the  dwellers  on  the  earth,  the  trial  and 
tribulation  that  await  even  the  Church  of  Christ. 
And  before  these  things  are  revealed  to  him,  he 
is  allowed  to  see,  before  they  are  related  by  him, 
he  describes — these  twin  scenes,  the  things  that 
are,  things  which  must  so  profoundly  affect  men's 
judgment  on  the  things  that  come  to  pass.  It  is 
as  though  the  Apostle  felt  that  his  readers  would 


CHAPTEKS   IV.,   V.  167 

be  able  to  look  forward  without  a  quiver  of  dread 
to  the  times  of  suffering  and  of  sifting  which  were 
at  hand,  if  only  they  could  share  with  him  the 
glorious  conviction  of  the  things  that  are,  the  all- 
pervading  and  all-ruling  power  of  the  Almighty, 
and  the  all-embracing,  all-uplifting  power  of  the 
Redeeming  Lord. 

And  what  was  put  here  to  serve  a  special  pur- 
pose, stands  here  to  meet  a  general  need.  The 
clouds  which  hang  over  human  life,  half  conceal 
and  half  reveal  forces  which  are  full  of  threatening 
and  of  dread.  He  who  tries  to  peer  into  the 
future  of  his  own  life,  or  of  the  life  of  nations  or 
the  world,  may  see  such  things  as  John  foresaw — 
wave  upon  wave  of  trouble,  forces  of  evil  raising 
themselves  to  gigantic  power,  confusion  and 
distress  among  the  people  of  God,  the  possible 
falling  away  of  many,  a  struggle  between  good 
and  evil  culminating  in  a  very  Armageddon.  And 
yet  he  may  face  it  all  without  trepidation,  if  only 
he  has  seen  the  vision  of  John  in  Patmos,  if  he 
has  been  able  to  join  in  these  great  songs  of 
praise. 

That  great  song  of  Creation,  the  song  which 
has  never  ceased  since  the  first  day  that  "  the 
morning  stars  sang  together,"  is  one  in  which  we 
men  are  not  qualified  to  take  part  until  we  have 
learnt  to  join  triumphantly  in  the  song  of  Eedemp- 
tion.     But  when  we  have  beheld  in  the  Lamb  of 


168      THE   BOOK   OF   REVELATION 

God,  "slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world," 
the  one  through  whom  God  is  pleased  to  reconcile 
the  world  unto  Himself,  when  ourselves  partaking 
in  that  reconciliation  we  are  made  kings  and 
priests  unto  Him,  then  opening  is  made  even  for 
us  men  in  that  vaster  choir,  of  those  who  because 
they  see  in  all  created  life  the  working  of  one 
supreme  and  holy  Will,  see  human  life  as  it  is, 
human  life  with  all  that  threatens  it,  human  life 
with  all  that  limits  it ;  and  yet,  "  rest  not  day  and 
night  saying,  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  is  the  Lord  God 
Almighty." 


THE   SEALS,   THE  TEUMPETS,  AND 
THE  BOWLS 

Eev.  vi.-xvi. 

The  writer's  preparation  for  the  ushering  in  of 
his  vision  of  Judgment  is  now  complete,  and  we 
come  to  what  was  in  all  probability  for  himself 
and  for  his  first  readers  the  central  and  most  im- 
portant part  of  his  Apocalypse.  His  great  purpose 
is  to  depict  the  impending  judgment  of  God  upon 
mankind  in  its  certainty,  its  nearness,  and  the 
stages  of  its  progress  ;  and  so  on  the  one  hand  to 
warn  the  unbelieving  and  the  wicked,  and  on  the 
other  to  encourage  God's  own  people  to  unabated 
patience  and  confidence  under  the  trial  to  which 
they  are  to  be  exposed.  The  contents  of  the  fore- 
going chapters,  important  as  they  are,  and  precious 
to  ourselves,  have  yet  their  primary  value  for  the 
earliest  readers  in,  this,  that  they  set  them  in  a 
right  position  from  which  to  judge  what  follows, 
not  only  as  it  stands  predicted  here,  but  as  it  shall 
unroll  itself  in  their  experience.  The  first  chapter 
has  set  forth  the  occasion  of  the  prophecy,  and  the 


170      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

authoritative  source  from  which  it  proceeds.  The 
second  and  third  chapters  have  served  their  special 
purpose  in  bringing  both  comfort  and  admonition 
to  the  Churches  of  the  Province,  comfort  in  so  far 
as  they  know  now  how  precisely  their  Lord  en- 
visages their  situation,  how  tenderly  He  is  touched 
by  their  distress  and  trial,  how  completely  His 
promises  fill  every  hollow  of  their  need — admoni- 
tion, in  so  far  as,  searched  by  His  word,  they  have 
recognised  the  various  shortcomings  in  their  faith 
and  practice,  the  danger,  to  which  both  individu- 
ally and  corporately  they  are  exposed,  of  allowing 
the  distinction  between  themselves  and  the  world 
to  be  obliterated,  and  so  of  being  swept  away  by 
the  coming  storm  of  judgment.  In  chapters  four 
and  five  there  have  been  revealed  to  and  through 
the  Apostle  the  great  facts  of  Creation  and  Eedemp- 
tion,  which  form,  as  it  were,  the  background 
against  which  the  coming  events  in  time  are  to  be 
viewed.  The  spectators  have  been  prepared ;  the 
all-important  background  has  been  set ;  and  now 
the  drama  of  Judgment  begins. 

For  convenience  of  examination  it  may  be  de- 
scribed as  a  drama  in  three  acts — the  first  a  series 
of  judgments  following  on  the  opening  of  the 
seven  seals,  the  second  a  series  following  on  the 
blowing  of  the  seven  trumpets,  and  the  third  a 
series  following  on  the  pouring  of  the  seven  bowls. 
The  description  of  these  successive  series  is  dis- 


CHAPTEK  VI.  171 

tributed  over  several  chapters,  beginning  with  the 
sixth  and  ending  with  the  sixteenth.  But  within 
these  chapters  there  are  inserted  three  passages 
which  are  best  understood  as  "parentheses," 
which  break  the  continuity  of  the  judgment 
series.  The  first  of  these  occupies  the  seventh 
chapter,  the  second,  chapters  ten  and  eleven  down 
to  the  thirteenth  verse,  and  the  third,  chapters 
twelve  to  fifteen.  The  meaning  and  purpose  of 
these  parentheses  does  not  concern  us  just  now.  It 
is  sufficient  to  observe  their  presence  and  their 
parenthetical  character.  If  the  reader  passes  over 
these  chapters  for  the  present,  he  finds  that  the 
drama  of  Judgment  unrolls  itself  steadily  and 
continuously  before  his  eyes. 

It  is  the  Lamb  who  opens  the  seals.  The  key 
of  all  the  future  is  in  the  hands  of  Christ,  in  that 
special  aspect  of  His  character  and  His  work 
which  is  represented  by  the  Lamb,  His  self- 
offering  to  God  on  behalf  of  men,  His  will  to 
redeem  mankind  undeterred  by  their  sin  or  His 
own  immeasurable  pain.  The  Father  '*hath 
committed  all  judgment  to  the  Son,"  "  hath 
given  him  authority  to  execute  judgment  " ;  but 
the  hand  that  opens  the  seals  which  mark  the 
stages  of  judgment  is  the  hand  which  was  nailed 
"  for  our  advantage  on  the  bitter  cross."  While 
men  can  see  the  Agent  of  Judgment  under  the 
form  of  a  Lamb,  they  still  behold  the  Saviour  in 


172      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

the  Judge  ;  and  till  the  final  judgment  has  passed 
there  is  room  for  men  to  repent,  to  **  see  one 
instant  and  be  saved." 

The  Seer  beholds  in  his  vision  how  the  opening 
of  the  successive  seals  is  followed  by  successive 
strokes  of  judgment  which  fall  upon  the  earth 
and  its  inhabitants.  The  first  four  of  these 
strokes  of  judgment  are  symbolised  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  four  horses  and  their  riders. 
These  are  summoned  one  after  the  other  by  one 
of  the  four  "  living  creatures,"  "  saying  as  with 
a  voice  of  thunder,  Come."  As  to  the  meaning 
to  be  attached  to  these  four  riders,  there  is  no 
difficulty  or  question  except  in  regard  to  the  first. 
This  has  been  taken  by  some  to  represent  the 
Lord  Christ  Himself  (or  some  representation  of 
Him)  returning  as  a  victor,  "  conquering  and  to 
conquer."  But  it  is  not  here,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  long  series  of  judgments,  that  we 
can  find  room  for  His  appearance ;  it  is  not  until 
the  nineteenth  chapter  is  reached,  when  the 
cycles  of  anticipatory  judgments  are  complete, 
that  we  are  to  find  Him  whose  "  name  is  called 
the  Word  of  God ' '  coming  forth  to  victory 
attended  by  "  the  armies  of  heaven,"  and  with 
many  crowns  upon  His  head.  Neither  is  it  com- 
patible with  even  the  Apocalyptic  freedom  of 
handling  images,  that  Christ  should  be  presented 
at  one  and  the  same  moment  as  the  Lamb  who 


CHAPTEK  VI.  173 

opens  the  seals,  and  the  rider  who  appears  in 
consequence  of  that  opening,  if  not  out  of  the 
book  itself.  In  view  of  these  objections  it  has 
been  suggested  that  this  first  rider  represents  not 
Christ  Himself,  ''but  only  some  symbol  of  His 
victorious  power,  the  embodiment  of  His  advan- 
cing kingdom  as  regards  that  side  of  its  progress 
when  it  breaks  down  earthly  power,  and  makes 
the  kingdoms  of  the  w^orld  to  be  the  kingdom  of 
our  Lord  and  His  Christ."  *  But  even  for  a 
figure  with  this  meaning  there  seems  to  be  no 
proper  place  here  in  advance  of,  and  in  closest 
connection  with,  the  judgment  of  destruction 
upon  wickedness.  The  clue  to  the  correct  ex- 
planation lies  not  in  the  "  white  horse  "  and  its 
supposed  connection  with  the  "triumph"  of  a 
Koman  general,  which  rests  upon  a  mistake,  but 
in  the  "  bow,"  which  is  the  most  characteristic 
feature  about  this  first  rider.  He  represents 
Invasion,  victorious  invasion  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  on  the  part  of  a  particular  nation,  the 
Parthians,  who  were  famous  for  their  skill  as 
bowmen,  and  whose  growing  power  on  the 
Eastern  frontier  was  a  just  cause  of  alarm. 
"  The  bowman  sitting  on  a  white  horse,  to  whom 
a  crown  was  given,  is  the  Parthian  King.     The 

■-'•  So  Alford,  with  whom  agree  Hilgenfeld  and  Zahn  ("  A 
Presentation  of  the  Victorious  Course  of  the  Gospel"),  and, 
more  recently,  Bernhard  Weiss. 


174      THE   BOOK   OF^  KEVELATION 

bow  was  not  a  Eoman  weapon  ;  it  was  not  used 
in  the  Eoman  armies  except  by  a  few  auxiliaries 
levied  among  outlying  tribes,  who  carried  their 
national  weapon.  The  Parthian  weapon  was  the 
bow ;  the  bowmen  were  all  horsemen  ;  and  they 
could  use  the  bow  as  well  when  they  were  fleeing 
as  when  they  were  charging."  The  colour  of  the 
rider's  horse  corresponds  with  this  interpretation. 
For  "  white  had  been  the  sacred  colour  among 
the  old  Persians,  for  whom  the  Parthians  stood 
in  later  times ;  and  sacred  white  horses  accom- 
panied every  Persian  army."  * 

The  first  rider,  then,  represents  Invasion,  by 
this  terrible  and  ruthless  people  from  the  East, 
putting  fire  and  slaughter  through  many  lands. 
The  second,  mounted  on  a  red  horse,  is  War,  the 
outbreak  of  civil  conflict  within  the  Empire 
itself.  The  third,  who  rides  a  black  horse,  and 
carries  scales  in  his  hand,  is  Famine,  dearth  so 
terrible  that  the  utmost  a  man  can  earn  by  a 
whole  day's  labour  is  only  enough  to  keep  him- 
self, and  leaves  nothing  for  those  dependent  on 
him;  dearth  of  that  peculiarly  horrible  kind  which 
mocks  men  by  the  abundance  of  what  are  by 
comparison  luxuries,  while  the  necessaries  of  life 
are  not  to  be  had.  There  is  abundance  of  oil  and 
wine ;  but  bread  is  a  shilHng  a  loaf.  The  fourth 
rider,  bestriding  a  horse  of  livid  grey,  is  Death, 
"  Ramsay,  loc.  cit.,  p.  58. 


CHAPTEK  VI.  175 

followed  by  Hades,  or  the  Grave,  the  black  pesti- 
lence which  treads  hard  on  the  heels  of  Famine, 
mowing  down  its  helpless  victims,  and  the 
insatiable  Grave  which  gathers  them  into  itself. 
Thus,  the  judgments  here  predicted  follow  very 
closely  the  course  of  events  indicated  by  Christ 
Himself — *'  wars  and  rumours  of  wars,"  "  famines 
and  pestilences."  But  these  things  are  the 
"beginnings  of  travail,"  the  "woes"  which 
precede  the  Lord's  return,  the  birth-pangs  out 
of  which  the  new  creation  is  to  issue. 

The  opening  of  the  fifth  seal  ushers  in  what 
appears  to  be  a  distinct  group  of  judgments,  and 
reveals  a  distinction  among  those  who  suffer  by 
them.  We  behold  the  martyrs  for  the  cause  of 
God  awaiting  the  consummation  of  their  felicity, 
represented  as  impatient  for  the  hour  of  recom- 
pense to  strike,  and  bidden  to  wait  yet  a  season, 
until  their  number  be  complete.  In  other  words, 
among  those  who  are  being  racked  and  slain  by 
Invasion,  War,  Famine,  and  Pestilence,  and 
being  swept  up  by  the  Grave,  there  are  some, 
they  may  be  few,  they  may  be  many,  whose 
names  are  written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life, 
whose  souls  also  have  to  pass  into  God's  keeping ; 
and  when  the  tale  of  these  is  complete,  then  the 
measure  of  heavenly  felicity  will  be  completed 
too.  The  solidarity  of  the  Church,  of  the  Church 
on  earth  with  the  Church  in  heaven,  is  so  real 


176      THE   BOOK   OF   BEVELATION 

that  their  experience  of  blessedness  lacks  some- 
thing until  our  warfare  also  is  accomplished. 

The  sixth  seal  brings  us  to  the  climax;  it  is 
concerned  with  the  things  which  immediately 
precede  "  the  end,"  or  that  which  has  all  the 
appearance  of  the  end.  The  events  which  it 
ushers  in,  the  earthquake,  the  darkening  of  the 
sun,  the  shaking  of  the  constitution  of  Nature, 
are  reproduced  almost  in  the  same  words  from 
our  Lord's  prediction  in  the  Gospels  :  "  Imme- 
diately after  the  tribulation  of  those  days  the 
sun  shall  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not 
give  her  light,  and  the  stars  shall  fall  from 
heaven,  and  the  powers  of  the  heavens  shall  be 
shaken :  and  then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the 
Son  of  Man  in  heaven."  These  are  the  things 
which  immediately  precede  the  end. 

But  there  is  a  seventh  seal ;  and  when  that 
is  opened,  there  is  first  of  all  a  silence  in  heaven. 
That  the  duration  of  this  silence  is  fixed  at  "  half 
an  hour"  simply  means  that  it  lasted  for  a  broken 
and  indefinite  period.  It  suggests  the  tremen- 
dous uncertainty,  the  strained  eagerness  with 
which  the  end  of  the  silence  is  awaited,  especially 
by  the  Seer.  It  is  plainly  a  silence  big  with  fate, 
conveying,  as  nothing  else  could  do,  the  impres- 
sion of  agonised  suspense.  The  "lightnings  and 
voices  and  thunders  "  cease  :  even  the  music  and 
the  praises  of  heaven  seem  to  cease ;  the  whole 


CHAPTEE  VIII.  177 

innumerable  multitude  of  heaveilly  beings  are 
intent  to  see  what  shall  come.  Will  it  be  indeed 
the  end  ?  There  is  "  a  stillness  so  absolute,  that 
the  whole  scene  seems  laid  for  the  sudden  signal 
which  never  comes  to  change  and  end  it." 

For  when  we  look  for  the  end  to  come,  behold, 
seven  angels  stand  forth,  with  seven  trumpets, 
and  with  the  blowing  of  these  trumpets  a  new 
series  of  judgments  begins.  We  shall  have  to 
consider  immediately  what  is  the  nature  of  the 
relation  between  the  first  and  the  second  series, 
and  also  the  third.  Meanwhile,  we  have  to 
observe  the  particular  judgments  which  are 
heralded  by  the  successive  trumpets.  A  com- 
parison with  the  narrative  in  the  Book  of 
Exodus  will  show  that  they  correspond  very 
closely  with  the  successive  plagues  which  fell 
upon  Egypt  and  the  obstinate  Pharaoh.  Hail 
and  fire,  water  turned  into  blood,  rivers  poisoned 
so  that  men  die  of  drinking  their  waters ;  dark- 
ness through  the  cutting  off  of  the  sun's  light — 
these  judgments  correspond  in  character  with  the 
plagues  of  Egypt,  though  they  are  heightened  in 
effect  by  being  made  universal.  Once  more,  the 
fifth  and  the  sixth  of  the  s^ies  usher  in  events 
which  differ  somewhat  in  character  from  those 
immediately  preceding.  As  the  fifth  seal  opened 
a  vision  of  heaven  and  the  souls  of  the  righteous, 
so  the  blowing  of  the  fifth  trumpet  unstops  the 

13 


178      THE  BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

mouth  of  hell,  the  shaft  which,  according  to 
ancient  cosmogony,  was  supposed  to  lead  down 
through  the  earth  into  the  abyss.  Out  of  this 
comes  pouring  a  dense  cloud  of  insect-like 
creatures,  equipped  and  prepared  for  the  torment 
of  men.  In  the  description  of  this  judgment- 
stroke  we  may  see  a  combination  of  the  plague 
of  flies  in  Egypt,  and  the  imagery  of  the  famous 
passage  in  Joel,  where  the  army  of  invading 
locusts  is  described ;  *  only  in  the  Apocalypse 
every  feature  is  heightened  by  the  hellish  origin 
of  the  plague. 

The  sounding  of  the  sixth  trumpet  is  the  signal 
for  something  like  that  which  followed  the  open- 
ing of  the  first  seal,  the  letting  loose  of  invading 
hordes  from  the  East.  In  a  Jewish  Apocalypse 
of  the  same  period  we  find  a  similar  anticipation  : 
*' A  voice  was  heard;  let  these  four  kings  be 
loosed  which  are  bound  beside  the  river  Euphrates, 
which  shall  destroy  a  third  part  of  mankind. 
And  they  were  loosed,  and  there  was  a  great 
commotion."  And  again  in  the  Book  of  Enoch 
we  have  :  "In  those  days  shall  the  angels  gather 
themselves  together,  and  turn  eastwards  to  the 
Parthians  and  the  Medes,  and  stir  up  their  kings 
so  that  a  spirit  of  unrest  comes  over  them,  and 
chase,  them  from  their  thrones,  so  that  like  lions 
they  break  forth  from  their  lairs,  and  like  hungry 
-  Joel.  ii.  2-.11 


CHAPTEE  IX.  179 

wolves  upon  the  herds."  The  basis  of  this  part 
of  the  vision  is  probably  the  same  anticipation 
of  invasion  of  the  Empire  by  the  Parthians,  the 
"terrible  riding  folk."  Men  in  those  days  fore- 
saw a  ''  Yellow  Peril "  with  no  less  anxiety  than 
some  do  to-day.  And  more  than  once  in  the 
history  of  Europe  this  has  been  the  form  which 
God's  judgment  has  taken,  as  when  the  Huns,  the 
Tartars,  and  the  Ottomans  were  successively  let 
loose  from  their  abodes  in  the  East. 

The  judgment  ushered  in  by  the  sixth  trumpet 
is  followed,  like  the  sixth  seal,  by  a  parenthesis, 
but  in  this  case  by  a  much  longer  one,  which 
covers  chapters  ten  and  eleven  down  to  the 
thirteenth  verse.  Then  we  read  :  "  The  second 
Woe  is  past;  behold,  the  third  Woe  cometh 
quickly."  Then  the  seventh  angel  sounds,  and 
his  sounding  is  followed  not  by  silence,  like  the 
seventh  seal,  but  by  '*  great  voices  in  heaven,"  by 
an  outburst  of  praise  from  the  multitude  which 
no  man  can  number,  and  a  solemn  proclamation 
of  the  glorious  consummation,  *'  The  kingdom  of 
the  world  is  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord 
and  of  his  Christ."  This  is  plainly  one  aspect  of 
the  end ;  but  the  end  in  all  its  fulness  and  finality 
is  not  yet ;  for  a  new  scene  is  set,  a  new  back- 
ground revealed  in  heaven,  the  open  temple  of 
God,  and  therein  the  ark  of  His  covenant.  The 
meaning  of  this  is  once  more  that   all   which 


180      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

follows,  the  carrying  out  of  judgment  in  further 
detail,  takes  place  in  presence  of  this  open 
temple,  and  in  presence  of  this  symbol  of  God's 
covenant  grace  toward  men.  The  symbolism  is 
taken  from  the  worship  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  we  shall  best  realise  its  meaning  if  we  bear 
in  mind  that  its  New  Testament  counterpart 
is  found  in  the  Cross  of  Christ.  From  hence- 
forth all  God's  judgments  take  effect  in  the 
foreground  of  the  Cross,  which,  while  it  accentu- 
ates the  guilt  of  the  obstinate  and  unbelieving, 
continues  to  proclaim  pardon  to  those  who  repent. 
Once  more  we  pass  over  a  parenthesis,  the 
third  and  longest  of  all,  occupying  chaps,  xii., 
xiii.,  and  xiv.,  and  come,  in  xv.  1  and  5,  to  the 
third  series  of  judgments,  the  bowls.  This  is 
connected  with  the  preceding  one  by  the  state- 
ment in  the  fifth  verse :  *'  I  saw,  and  the  temple 
of  the  tabernacle  was  opened ;  and  there  came 
out  from  the  temple  the  seven  angels  that  had 
the  seven  plagues."  The  pouring  of  the  first 
four  bowls  in  succession  is  followed  by  judgments 
which  correspond  in  character  with  those  heralded 
by  the  first  four  trumpets,  plagues  like  ''  the 
boil  bursting  forth  with  blains,"  by  which  the 
Egyptians  were  afflicted,  the  turning  first  of 
the  sea,  then  of  the  rivers,  into  blood,  the  in- 
crease of  the  sun's  heat  to  destroying  power 
The  fifth  bowl,  hke  the  fifth  trumpet,  is  followed 


CHAPTER  XV.  181 

by  a  plague  of  overwhelming  darkness ;  and  this 
calamity  specially  affects  the  throne  and  kingdom 
of  the  Monster  Eome  and  the  Empire  of  which 
it  is  the  capital.  And  the  sixth  bowl  is  again 
like  the  sixth  trumpet,  in  that  it  opens  once  more 
the  way  for  invasion  from  the  East,  through  the 
drying  up  of  the  Euphrates,  "  that  the  way 
might  be  made  ready  for  the  kings  from  the  sun- 
rising."  This  anticipation  is  here  developed  in 
fuller  detail,  inasmuch  as  the  evil  spirits  which 
inspire  the  forces  of  evil,  the  dragon,  the  monster, 
and  the  false  prophet,  go  forth  to  summon  these 
and  all  the  other  kings  of  the  world  to  the  final 
conflict.  Armageddon,  or  the  ''Hill  of  Megiddo," 
which  is  specified  as  the  place  to  which  they 
are  summoned,  stands  at  one  end  of  the  great 
plain  of  Esdraelon,*  which  from  the  time  of 
Sisera  downwards  has  been  one  of  the  historic 
battle-fields  of  the  world.  Finally,  the  pouring 
of  the  seventh  bowl  is  followed,  like  the  seventh 
seal  and  the  seventh  trumpet,  by  "  lightnings  and 
voices  and  thunders,"  and  "a mighty  earthquake," 
and  by  "  a  great  voice  out  of  the  temple,  saying, 
It  is  done." 

This  rapid  analysis  of  the  contents  of  the  three- 
fold cycle  of  judgments  connected  with  the  Seals, 
the  Trumpets  and  the  Bowls,  shows  how  closely 

'■^'  Judg.  V.  19 :  and  cf.  G.  A.  Smith,  Historical  Geography 
of  Palestine,  pp.  391  ff. 


182      THE  BOOK  OF   EEVELATION 

they  are  related,  and  how  important  it  is  to 
examine  them  apart  from  the  parentheses,  each 
one  of  which  is  detachable  and  in  a  sense  detached 
from  the  context.  In  such  an  examination  three 
points  call  for  special  attention :  the  general 
character  of  the  judgment-calamities  within  each 
series,  the  connection  of  the  series  one  with 
another,  and  the  general  purpose  and  meaning 
of  this  drama  of  Judgment  as  a  whole. 

On  the  first  point,  and  in  reference  to  the 
general  character  of  these  judgments,  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  they  are  the  same  in  kind  as  men  had 
long  been  in  the  habit  of  recognising  as  forms 
of  Divine  chastisement.  They  are  for  the  most 
part  calamities  of  a  kind  which  is  already  familiar 
either  in  history,  as  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  the 
bitterness  of  famine,  the  devastation  of  war,  or 
in  earlier  predictions,  wherein  the  Old  Testament 
prophets  had  foretold  calamities  which  were  to 
follow  on  disobedience.  The  calamities  foretold 
in  the  Apocalypse  are  the  same  in  kind,  though 
terribly  increased  in  scope  and  severity.  What 
is  going  to  happen  is  the  same  in  kind  as  men 
already  know,  the  same  as  what  has  happened. 
These  natural  plagues,  disasters,  and  catastrophes, 
as  we  call  them,  are  "natural"  only  in  the 
sense  that  they  affect  men  through  Nature;  these 
human  scourges  of  tyranny,  war,  and  invasion 
are  "  human  "  only  in  the  sense  that  in  them  man 


CHAPTEES   VI.-XVI.  183 

is  the  instrument  of  a  higher  will.  "Natural" 
and  "human"  though  these  things  may  seem, 
they  are  none  the  less  supernatural,  in  the  deeper 
sense  that  they  proceed  from  God,  are  allowed 
and  brought  about  by  Him,  and  work  together 
for  the  realisation  of  His  holy  purpose.  From 
this  point  of  view  every  such  event  is  a  "  judg- 
ment," the  avenging  of  some  outraged  law,  the 
vindication  of  some  offended  principle.  And  in 
order  to  bring  about  a  judgment  which  shall  be 
final  for  one  portion  of  the  world's  inhabitants, 
for  a  nation,  or  ultimately  for  the  whole  world 
itself,  it  is  not  necessary  for  God  to  change  the 
hind  of  disaster ;  He  has  only  to  widen  its  scope, 
to  extend  its  duration,  to  suspend  the  checks 
which  have  hitherto  been  put  upon  its  operation, 
and  that  which  on  the  smaller  scale  we  call  a 
natural  catastrophe,  or  put  down  to  merely  human 
causes,  would  be  felt  by  the  survivors  to  be  a 
judgment  of  God,  would  be  recognised  as  corre- 
sponding to  one  of  the  scenes  of  this  great 
drama. 

In  other  words,  the  writer  of  the  Apocalypse 
takes  us,  as  it  were,  behind  the  great  web  of 
Nature  and  of  history,  and  lets  us  see  the  hand 
which  sets  these  and  all  such  phenomena  in  the 
fabric  of  human  experience;  and  his  prediction 
of  the  accumulated  repetition  of  such  phenomena 
issuing  in   the   destruction  of  the  world  "  that 


184      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

lieth  in  wickedness"  rests  upon  the  fact  that 
God  has  pledged  Himself  to  make  an  end  of  evil, 
to  create  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  ''wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness."  Thus  what  he  describes 
as  the  continuous  process  of  the  "  last  judgment" 
is  for  us  a  continuous  process  of  a  present  judg- 
ment. We  are  in  the  midst  of  it,  a  process  of 
judgment  the  end  whereof  is  not  yet,  but  is 
nearer  than  when  he  wrote. 

On  the  second  point,  this  explanation  of  the 
character  of  the  judgment  is  confirmed,  when  we 
proceed  to  consider  the  relation  between  these 
several  cycles  of  judgment.  A  comparison  of 
these  amongst  themselves  yields  a  number  of  per- 
plexing features.  Each  one  of  them,  the  Seals, 
the  Trumpets,  and  the  Bowls,  is,  or  seems  to  be, 
complete  in  itself.  Each  one  seems  to  bring  us  to 
the  very  verge  of  the  final  end.  And  yet  the  second 
springs,  as  it  were,  with  a  fresh  start  from  the 
end  of  the  first,  and  the  third  with  a  fresh  start 
from  the  end  of  the  second.  In  what  way  are  we 
to  understand  this  climax,  which  proves  to  be  not 
the  end,  but  a  new  beginning  ?  Some  have  sought 
to  trace  a  progression  of  predicted  events  in  a 
straight  line  through  all  the  three  cycles,  as 
though  they  represented  three  series  of  events 
which  are  to  succeed  one  another  in  time,  and 
lead  on  by  three  successive  stages  to  the  End  of 
all    things.      Others,    seeing    the    difficulty    of 


CHAPTEKS  VI.-XVI.  185 

relating  the  series  thus  to  one  another  when  each 
one  of  them  so  plainly  reaches  the  edge  of  the 
End,  have  adopted  what  is  called  the  theory  of 
Becapitulation.     They    assume    that    the    three 
cycles  set  forth,   in   different   forms,   the    same 
series  of  events,  that  each  cycle  of  prediction  is 
in  effect  a  repetition  of  the  other  two,  the  object 
and  result  of  this  repetition  being  to  enforce  with 
triple  energy  the   certainty  and  terror  of  these 
judgments.      The  true  explanation  probably  Hes 
between  these  two,  and  in  the  recognition  of  the 
fact  that  the  judgments  of  God  move  on  to  their 
final  issue  in  a  line  which  is  neither  straight  nor 
circular,  but  spiral.     It  is  like  upward  progress 
round  a  circular  mountain,  in  which  each  com- 
pleted circuit  brings  the  traveller  to  a  point  which 
corresponds  with  that  from  which  he  started,  but 
stands  above  it,  nearer  the  peak,  the  end.     From 
any  point  in  each  circuit  he  may  behold  the  same 
section  of  the  landscape,  or  in  the  case  before  us, 
the  same   form  of  impending  judgment.     Erom 
the  same  point  he  sees  also  the  peak ;  and  with 
each  completed  circuit  he  finds  it  nearer,  the  point 
from   which  he   shall   see    the   whole   complete. 
But  the  end  is  not  yet,  and  again  he  starts  upon 
another  sweep  of  outlook  upon  judgments  to  come, 
to  arrive  again  at  the  point  where  the  end  seems 
almost  at  hand. 
And  such  an  anticipation  of  the  future  is  con- 


186      THE   BOOK   OF   REVELATION 

firmed  by  human  experience.  Once  and  again 
since  this  book  was  written,  have  men  seemed  to 
reach  a  climax  in  the  world's  history,  a  climax  of 
disaster  and  oppression  and  despair,  when  a  cycle 
of  human  wickedness  seems  to  have  run  its 
course,  a  full  harvest  of  Divine  judgment  has 
been  reaped,  and  men  have  held  their  breath  in 
expectation  of  a  final  end.  We  see  such  crises  in 
the  Fall  of  Eome  in  the  fifth  century,  with  its 
judgment  upon  the  vices  of  an  effete  civiHsation ; 
in  the  cataclysm  of  the  Reformation,  with  its 
judgment  on  a  corrupt  Papacy;  in  the  French 
Revolution  and  the  judgment  then  executed  upon 
the  ancien  regime ;  and  it  may  well  be  that  we  are 
spectators  of  something  similar  in  Eastern  Europe 
to-day.  In  all  such  crises,  men  who  themselves 
are  caught  in  the  maelstrom  of  catastrophe,  have 
felt  that  this  must  be  the  ''last  judgment,"  as 
indeed  it  was  for  them  and  for  the  civilisation  of 
which  they  formed  a  part.  But  the  final  end  was 
not  yet.  Judgment  fell ;  one  cycle  of  judgment 
had  run  its  course.  But  another  cycle  com- 
menced. The  final  judgment  is  still  to  come ; 
but  it  is  nearer. 

So  interpreted  and  understood,  this  drama  of 
Judgment  carries  the  purpose  of  its  being  recorded 
and  its  meaning  for  to-day  very  near  the  surface. 
It  depicts  for  us  in  the  most  impressive  way  the 
indubitable    future — the    continuous     execution, 


CHAPTEES  VI.-XVI.  187 

through  the  agency  of  Nature  or  of  Man,  of  the 
proclaimed  will  of  God,  that  evil  shall  be 
destroyed.  And  though  in  this  book  the  imme- 
diate application  is  to  the  larger  world,  to  nations, 
communities,  and  classes  of  men,  it  cannot  be 
easy  to  evade  the  lesson  which  is  written  here  for 
the  individual  too.  We  see  here  in  a  picture  of 
the  future,  as  we  see  on  the  same  large  scale  in 
the  history  of  nations,  the  pouring  of  the  wrath  of 
God  upon  all  iniquity  and  sin.  And  the  same 
law,  the  same  judgment  is  at  work  on  the  smaller 
scale  of  individual  life  and  experience ;  the  same 
cycles,  stopping  short  of  destruction,  and  resuming 
again  with  a  nearer  inevitableness  of  doom. 

The  awful  reality  of  this  experience  has  been 
caught  and  described  by  Kobert  Browning,  as  by 
no  one  else.  After  drawing  a  picture  of  natural 
catastrophe,  the  colours  for  which  are  largely 
supplied  from  this  passage  in  the  Apocalypse,  he 
makes  the  man  who  beholds  it  say : — 

"I  felt  begin 
The  Judgment  Day:  to  retrocede 
Was  too  late  now.     '  In  very  deed  ' 
(I  uttered  to  myself),  '  that  Day  1 ' 
The  intuition  burned  away 
All  darkness  from  my  spirit  too ; 
There  stood  I,  found  and  fixed,  I  knew, 
Choosing  the  world." 

"  I  heard  a  voice 
Beside  me  spoke  thus :  '  Life  is  done, 
Time  ends,  Eternity's  begun. 
And  thou  art  judged  for  evermore.'" 


188      THE   BOOK   OF   EEVELATION 

For  him  it  was  so  ;  and  yet  it  was  not  yet  so  for 
the  world.  He  missed  even  the  false  consolation 
of  being  involved  in  a  universal  ruin. 

"I  looked  up.     All  seemed  as  before, 
The  common  round  me,  and  the  sky 
Above,  stretched  drear  and  emptily. 

'  A  dream — a  wakmg  dream  at  most  1 
The  world  gone,  yet  the  world  is  here? 
Are  not  all  things  as  they  appear? 
Is  Judgment  past  for  me  alone ?  '" 

He  asks,  but  asks  in  vain,  **  Where  had  place 
the  great  white  throne  ?  The  rising  of  the  quick 
and  dead?"  Though  these  were  still  in  the 
future,  for  him  the  Judgment  was  over.  It  is  a 
great  reality  of  which  this  poem  records  the  dis- 
covery, the  possibility,  namely,  that  long  ere  that 
last  day  come,  whether  the  day  when  **  time 
shall  be  no  more,"  or  the  day  when  time  shall  be 
no  more  for  liivi,  a  man  may  incur  the  judgment 
which  for  him  is  final.  He  may  do  it,  by  giving 
no  heed  to  the  warning  judgments  which  he  sees 
falling  upon  others,  or  the  earlier  judgments 
which  have  fallen  upon  himself,  by  going  on 
still  in  the  wickedness  out  of  which  God  has  done 
all  He  can  to  shake  him,  to  arouse  him  by  the 
witness  of  word  and  experience.  Or  he  may 
escape  it  if  he  sees  these  things,  the  deaHngs  of 
God  with  men,  with  nations,  with  himself,  in  the 


CHAPTEES  VI.-XVI.  189 

light  in  which  St.  John  puts  them,  in  the  Hght 
which  streams  from  an  open  heaven,  where  God 
is,  the  Creator;  where  Christ  is,  the  Kedeemer, 
in  the  light  which  streams  from  the  Cross,  and 
irradiates  the  love  of  God  which  prevails  over  sin, 
and  the  great  truth :  **  He  that  believeth  on  me 
hath  everlasting  life." 


THE  VISION   OF  THE   EEDEEMED 
IN  HEAVEN 

Eev.  vii. 

The  seventh  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse  contains 
a  vision,  that  of  the  ''multitude  w^hich  no  man 
could  number,"  which  is  among  the  most 
familiar  and  most  highly  treasured  passages  in 
the  book.  The  meaning  of  this  vision  stands 
little  in  need  of  explanation ;  its  value  is  not  to 
be  enhanced  by  exposition.  It  speaks  straight  to 
the  heart  of  every  Christian.  The  picture  of  the 
Church  triumphant,  drawn  *'  out  of  every  nation, 
and  of  all  tribes  and  peoples  and  tongues,"  offer- 
ing the  praise  of  heaven  to  God  and  the  Lamb ; 
the  question,  **  Who  are  these  ?  "  and  its  answer ; 
the  description  of  their  privileges  as  the  flock 
shepherded  by  the  Lamb,  the  people  of  God's  own 
care — these  things  speak  for  themselves.  But 
regarded  as  a  whole  and  in  its  relation  to  the 
rest  of  the  book,  the  chapter  presents  us  with  a 
problem,  and  the  solution  of  the  problem  throws 

190 


CHAPTER  VII.  191 

valuable  light  on  the  larger  problem  of  the  book's 
construction. 

We  observe  in  the  first  place  the  parenthetic 
character  of  the  chapter.  Very  obviously  it  breaks 
the  continuity  of  the  vision  of  the  Seals.  The 
opening  of  each  seal  has  been  followed  by  the 
consequent  judgment,  briefly  and  tersely  recorded. 
The  judgment  following  on  the  sixth  seal  has 
been  recorded  like  the  rest  ;  and  just  when,  on 
the  analogy  of  the  rest  of  the  vision,  we  are 
looking  for  the  seventh  seal,  this  chapter  inter- 
venes, and  the  seventh  seal  is  not  opened  until 
the  eighth  chapter  is  reached.  The  character  of 
the  chapter  is  also  strikingly  different  from  that 
of  the  context.  The  vision  in  which  it  is  set  is 
a  vision  of  judgment.  With  the  single  exception 
of  the  fifth,  the  seals  have  ushered  in  one  form 
or  other  of  destructive  agency  upon  earth.  Here 
we  have  a  vision  of  Redemption,  of  the  serenity 
and  bliss  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven.  When  this 
chapter  is  left  behind,  the  unrolling  of  judgment 
proceeds  as  before  through  the  trumpets  and  the 
bowls.  The  chapter,  then,  is  a  parenthesis,  linked 
in  thought  with  the  scene  disclosed  by  the  fifth 
seal,  and  awaking  anticipations  of  future  visions 
of  a  similar  character,  which  find  their  culmina- 
tion in  the  vision  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 

When  we  come  to  examine  the  chapter  itself, 
we  can    hardly  fail   to  be  conscious  of  a  well- 


192      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

marked  division  between  the  eighth  verse  and 
the  ninth.  There  is  a  break,  a  change,  a  sudden 
expansion  of  horizon.  And  this  is  not  due  to 
any  change  of  subject.  The  subject  is  the  same 
throughout  the  chapter,  the  "  seaHng"  of  the  faith- 
ful, with  a  view  to  their  being  preserved  during, 
and  to  the  end  of,  the  impending  calamities. 
The  difference  between  the  two  parts  of  the 
chapter,  which  we  cannot  help  recognising,  lies 
not  in  the  subject,  but  in  the  way  it  is  treated,  in 
the  tone,  the  atmosphere,  of  the  second  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  first.  And  as  we  dwell  upon 
the  two  parts  separately,  other  points  of  difference 
clearly  emerge. 

In  the  first  half  we  have  the  imagery  of  one 
angel  holding  fast  the  four  winds,  and  the  other 
angel  ascending  from  the  east ;  imagery  which  is 
plainly  Apocalyptic  in  its  character ;  in  the  second, 
the  imagery  is  almost  wholly  famihar,  being 
culled  for  the  most  part  from  Old  Testament 
prophecy.  Further  indications  are  not  wanting 
that,  while  the  scene  of  the  second  half  is 
evidently  laid  in  heaven,  that  of  the  first  half 
is  to  be  sought  on  earth.  The  four  winds  are 
the  winds  of  Nature,  and  the  earth,  sea,  and  trees, 
which  they  are  not  to  injure,  belong  to  the  earth ; 
in  contrast  to  this,  every  detail  of  the  second  part 
is  consistent  only  with  the  life  of  heaven.  And, 
once  more,  a  comparison  of  the  sections  reveals  a 


CHAPTEE  VII.  193 

marked  difference  in  their  respective  outlooks  on 
the  future.  In  the  first,  those  who  are  sealed  are 
a  limited,  even  if  it  be  a  symbolic,  number.  They 
all  belong  to  the  house  of  Israel.  And  this  double 
limitation,  both  of  numbers  and  of  race,  is  further 
emphasised  in  a  very  striking  way  by  the 
rehearsal  of  the  number  of  the  sealed  who  are 
drawn  from  each  individual  tribe.  Looked  at  by 
itself,  and  even  apart  from  any  comparison  with 
what  follows,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that  this 
passage  breathes  the  essential  spirit  of  Judaism, 
its  particularism,  the  consciousness  of  being  the 
chosen  people,  the  national  pride  not  altogether 
free  from  contempt  for  the  Gentiles,  which  found 
expression  in  the  saying,  "  Salvation  is  of  the 
Jews."  The  prospect  of  being  preserved  through 
the  approaching  tribulation  is  in  these  eight 
verses  confined  to  the  children  of  Abraham.  And 
this  impression  of  the  Jewish  character  of  this 
passage  is  indefinitely  strengthened  by  the  con- 
trast in  this  respect  which  is  offered  by  the  second 
section  of  the  chapter,  where  all  the  emphasis  is 
laid  on  the  facts  that  the  number  of  the  sealed  is 
such  that  "  no  man  can  number,"  and  that  they 
are  drawn  not  from  any  one  race,  but  "  out  of  all 
kindreds  and  nations." 

Before    considering    this    contrast    in    detail, 
however,    there    is    still    another    point    to    be 
observed  in  connection  with  the  first  half,  and 
14 


194      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

that  is  the  curious  omission  of  one  of  the  twelve 
tribes  from  the  Hst  there  given.  All  the  other 
tribes  are  mentioned,  but  not  the  tribe  of  Dan. 
When  Y/e  inquire  what  may  be  the  reason  for  this 
strange  omission,  the  most  probable  explanation  is 
found  in  connection  with  a  tradition,  which  made 
its  appearance  in  post-exilic  Judaism,  to  the  effect 
that  as  the  Messiah  was  to  arise  out  of  the  tribe 
of  Judah,  so  the  anti-Messiah  (*'  Antichrist ") 
would  spring  from  the  tribe  of  Dan.  So  strong 
did  this  opinion  become  that  this  tribe  was,  as  we 
should  say,  excommunicated  by  certain  Eabbinic 
theologians  ;  it  was  denied  any  share  in  the 
anticipated  glories  of  the  future. 

Adding  this  to  the  points  previously  noted,  the 
earthly  plane  on  which  the  vision  moves,  and  the 
spirit  of  national  particularism  by  which  it  is 
shaped,  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that 
we  have  before  us  a  document  not  of  Christian 
but  of  Jewish  origin,  whose  presence  is  to  be 
explained  by  the  simple  suggestion  that  the 
Apostle  quotes  this  passage  from  some  Jewish 
Apocalypse  with  which  he  was  familiar. 

Some  such  explanation  of  its  origin  becomes 
almost  imperative  when  we  pass  on  to  the 
second  half  of  the  chapter,  and  find  how 
strongly  it  contrasts  at  every  point  with  the 
first. 

The    contrast    appears,  if    we    may  not    say 


CHAPTEE  VII.  195 

intentional,  at  least  conscious,  on  the  part  of 
the  writer.  There,  the  sealed  are  reckoned  as 
a  definite  number ;  their  number  (and  that 
means  their  limitation)  is  specially  insisted  on. 
Here,  the  sealed  are  a  vast  multitude,  whose 
special  characteristic  is  that  no  man  can  number 
them.  There  they  are  drawn  wholly  from  one 
nation,  and  specifically  from  the  tribes  of  which 
it  was  composed.  Here  it  is  specially  insisted 
that  they  are  out  of  all  nations;  the  Apostle 
seems  to  rejoice  in  heaping  up  words  to  show 
that  every  barrier  of  race  has  disappeared.  A 
still  deeper  contrast  underlies  the  condition  on 
the  fulfilment  of  which  the  blessedness  of  the 
redeemed  is  declared  to  rest.  In  the  first  half 
they  who  are  sealed  are  men  of  Israel  who  are 
"  servants  of  God."  The  condition  of  salvation 
is  still  that  of  the  old  dispensation,  viz.,  that  a 
man  should  be  of  the  chosen  race,  and  abide  in 
loyal  union  with  the  people  whom  God  had 
chosen  to  serve  Him.  Here,  in  the  second 
half,  that  condition  is  no  longer  insisted  on, 
and  another  has  taken  its  place.  They  who 
serve  God  day  and  night  in  His  temple,  are 
there  not  because  they  have  belonged  to  any 
human  stock  or  earthly  society,  but  because 
"  they  have  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb." 
It  would,  indeed,  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the 


196      THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

difference  between  the  two  parts  of  the  same 
chapter.  And  yet  they  are  not  contradictory ; 
the  one  is  contained  in  the  other  as  the  Old 
Testament  is  contained  in  the  New,  and  the 
whole  might  be  described  as  a  supreme  illustra- 
tion of  the  difference  Christ  has  made. 

For  let  us  try  to  realise  how  this  chapter  came 
to  be.  God,  who  has  in  these  last  times  spoken  to 
us  by  His  Son,  had  spoken  before  at  sundry  times 
and  in  divers  manners  through  His  servants  the 
j)rophets.  John,  the  WTiter  of  the  book,  takes  his 
stand  with  the  prophets.  He  writes  in  the  spirit 
of  prophecy,  though  in  the  form  of  an  Apocalypse. 
As  a  Jew,  one  of  the  sons  of  Zebedee,  he  would 
be  brought  up  in  a  circle  where  not  only  the  books 
of  our  Old  Testament  would  be  current,  but  many 
other  books  in  which  especially  the  hopes  of  the 
Messianic  future  were  expounded  and  enforced. 
It  is  at  least  possible  that  the  first  eight  verses 
of  this  chapter  formed  part  of  one  of  these  books ; 
their  contents  would  certainly  be  part  of  the 
furnishing  of  John's  mind  as  a  pious  Jew  of 
the  time  of  Christ.  To  him,  though  now  a 
disciple  of  Christ — to  him,  even  writing  under 
the  inspiration  of  Christ's  Spirit — they  seemed 
important,  valuable,  it  may  be  essential,  to  a 
complete  presentation  of  the  future.  So  he 
incorporates  them  in  his  own  Apocalypse.  But 
then.     Surely  we  have  here  a  spectacle  of  the 


CHAPTEE  VII.  197 

most  amazing  kind,  nothing  less  than  a  man 
laid  hold  of  before  our  very  eyes  by  the  Spirit 
of  Christ,  and  caught  up  into  the  seventh  heaven 
of  spiritual  reality.  As  when  we  ourselves  have 
climbed  to  the  top  of  some  high  mountain,  and 
stand  there  conscious  only  of  being  lifted  far 
above  the  plain,  until  the  dark  comes  on,  and 
the  eminence  on  which  we  stand,  with  all  the 
others  round  about,  dwarfs  into  nothingness  in 
presence  of  the  ethereal  immensities  of  night ; 
so  John's  little  bit  of  Apocalypse,  dear  and  up- 
lifting as  it  had  been  to  him,  sinks  into  flatness, 
as  the  heavens  open,  and  he  sees  God's  redeem- 
ing purpose  in  all  its  limitless  profundity.  His 
Jewish  expectation  of  the  future  becomes  merely 
a  platform  from  which  he  is  swept  off  to  contem- 
plate and  describe  the  purpose  of  God  larger  than 
the  Jews  had  ever  known,  a  purpose  that  included 
all  nations  and  kindreds  and  tongues. 

The  details  of  the  vision  which  follows  require, 
as  we  have  said,  neither  explanation  nor  exposi- 
tion ;  but  there  is  still  something  to  be  learnt  from 
the  method  of  this  revelation,  and  regarding  the 
central  idea  round  which  it  turns. 

As  to  the  method  of  Bevelation,  we  have  here 
a  literary  parallel  to  the  flower  in  the  hand  of  the 
poet : — 

"  Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  pluck  you  out  of  the  crannies, 


198      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

Hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand  ; 
Little  flower,  if  I  could  understand 
"What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is." 

We  pluck  this  flower  of  Christian  thought,  and 
along  with  flower  and  stem  there  comes  away,  as 
from  loose  soil,  the  root  also,  and  the  seedlet,  out 
of  which  all  the  beauty  and  the  glory  have  sprung ; 
and  if  we  could  understand  what  it  is,  "root  and 
all,  and  all  in  all,"  we  should  learn  something 
of  God's  way  of  revealing  Himself  to  man.  The 
two  parts  of  this  chapter  represent  two  stages  in 
the  conception  of  the  future  given  to  men  by  God. 
The  Apostle  has  received  one  "by  tradition  from 
his  fathers  "  ;  he  passes  to  the  other  by  inspiration 
from  God.  The  Word,  in  order  to  become  vocal 
to  men,  must  take  flesh,  must  enshrine  itself  in 
human  form  or  forms.  That  is  to  say,  God  comes 
down  to  man,  takes  him  as  he  is,  at  some  particular 
stage  of  moral  or  spiritual  development,  to  make 
him  the  instrument  of  His  revelation ;  plants  him 
on  some  thought,  some  truth,  some  institution,  in 
the  highest  form  it  has  yet  attained,  and  from 
that  draws  him  up  to  a  level  from  which  his 
previous  attainment  seems  insignificant  —  and 
may  even  seem  false — clarifies  the  thought, 
purifies  and  consecrates  the  institution,  and  so 
out  of  seed  and  soil,  through  rain  and  sunshine, 
draws  the  matchless  beauty  of  perfect  truth,  and 


CHAPTEK  VII.  199 

the  priceless  fruit  of  perfect  holiness.  If  so  be 
that  John's  glorious  vision  had  its  root  in  a 
Jewish  picture  of  the  future,  the  growth  was 
none  the  less,  nay,  all  the  more,  of  God. 

It  might  be  asked,  however,  how  do  w^e  know 
that  it  was  a  growth  not  only  towards  beauty, 
but  also  towards  truth?  The  answer  is,  we 
know,  because  it  satisfies  the  one  test  of  truth 
which  God  has  put  into  our  hands ;  it  is  in 
harmony  with  the  mind  of  Christ.  The  imagery 
in  which  the  central  idea  of  the  vision  is  clothed 
is  largely  drawn  from  the  Old  Testament ;  but  the 
idea  itself,  that  God's  redeeming  love  is  not  limited 
to  race  or  clime,  but  "  broad  as  are  the  heavens 
above" — the  idea  itself  is  of  Christ.  He  dealt 
with  man  as  man,  not  with  man  as  Jew  or 
Gentile;  the  cases  which  might  appear  contra- 
dictory to  this  were  but  those  in  which  He  paused 
to  pierce  below  the  surface  of  racial  distinction 
to  the  common  qualities  of  the  human  heart  be- 
neath. The  Gentiles  also  were  His  heritage.  His 
purchase,  and  His  care.  **  Other  sheep  I  have, 
which  are  not  of  this  fold ;  them  also  must  I 
bring,  and  there  shall  be  one  flock  and  one 
shepherd."  So  He  charged  His  followers  to  go 
and  make  disciples  "of  all  nations."  And  when 
one  of  these  declares  that  *'  in  Christ  Jesus  there 
is  .  .  .  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile,"  and  another 
of  them  foresees  in  the  glorious  consummation 


200      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

of  Christ  the  gathering  of  a  raultitude  which 
no  man  could  number  out  of  all  nations  upon 
earth,  no  one  can  deny  that  these  are  speaking 
in  accordance  with  the  mind  of  Christ.  There  is 
a  Spirit  of  Christ,  which  leads  His  humble 
disciples  into  all  truth,  and  "  all  truth "  is  an 
expansion  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

If  light  is  thus  thrown  on  the  method  by  which 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  expresses  Himself  through 
the  mind  of  a  man,  attention  is  also  focussed  on 
the  central  idea  of  the  vision,  which  is  the  unity 
of  the  race  before  the  throne  of  God,  the  opening 
of  God's  Elingdom  to  men  of  all  nations  under 
heaven,  the  removal  of  the  most  impregnable 
barriers  which  had  hitherto  divided  men.  The 
Seer  sets  before  us  a  picture  of  the  future,  which 
is  still  so  far  from  being  realised,  that  our  faith 
flutters  towards  it,  and  falls  with  broken  wing. 
And  yet  his  picture  and  prediction  had  facts  for 
their  background,  facts  which  together  form  one 
of  the  miracles  of  history. 

Our  Lord  is  said  to  have  done  many  signs  and 
wonders ;  but  of  all  those  which  bore  on  human 
life  there  is  none  so  marvellous  as  this,  that 
He  did  break  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition 
between  Jew  and  Gentile.  No  racial  or  social 
separation  we  could  think  of  would  be  less  likely 
to  give  way  than  this.  But  it  did  give  way,  before 
the  preaching  of  the  Crospel,    Both  were  made  one 


CHAPTEE  VII.  201 

by  the  blood  of  the  Cross.  This  bringing  together 
of  Jew  and  Gentile  to  dwell  together  as  members 
of  one  Church,  as  it  took  place  all  round  the 
Eastern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  in  the  first 
century,  was  one  of  those  "  greater  works  "  which 
Christ  predicted  would  be  brought  about  by  His 
disciples ;  and  it  is  a  fact  of  history  against 
which  the  waves  of  criticism  hurl  themselves  in 
vain. 

We,  too,  have  our  divisions,  domestic  and 
social ;  we  have  our  middle  walls  of  partition, 
ecclesiastical  and  racial.  We  despair  of  healing 
them  ;  we  hardly  hope  to  see  them  removed.  Is 
not  this  the  reason,  that  we  do  not  bring  to  bear 
the  one  remedy  which  has  proved  effective,  the 
love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  men's  hearts  through 
Jesus  Christ  ?  We  have  never  thought  of  it,  or 
we  never  thought  it  practical.  It  was  very 
practical  indeed  in  the  first  century,  when  its 
success  proved  the  historical  basis  of  this  vision. 
The  love  of  God  to  all  men  revealed  and  mediated 
through  Jesus  Christ  was  the  mighty  solvent  of 
all  barriers  then,  barriers  of  race,  barriers  of  pride, 
barriers  of  selfishness.  Beset  and  divided  as  we 
are  by  the  like  barriers,  we  stand  between  the 
fact  of  success  then,  and  this  picture  of  perfected 
success  for  the  Divine  remedy  yonder.  We  may 
be  taking  our  stand  like  the  Apostle  on  some 
traditional    conception  of  our  distinctness    and 


202      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

distinction  as  a  family,  as  a  class,  as  a  Church, 
as  a  nation ;  but  if  vision  of  heavenly  realities 
is  vouchsafed  to  us  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  we 
shall  see  that  the  far-off  Divine  event  for  which 
our  life  and  worship  are  preparing  now,  is  one 
from  which  all  such  barriers  and  distinctions 
have  disappeared,  and  that  the  Divine  power 
unto  salvation,  in  which  we  trust,  is  one 
before  which  even  now  such  barriers  may  go 
down. 


THE   SECOND  PAEENTHESIS 

Eev.  x.-xi.  13 

The  closing  verses  of  the  ninth  chapter  record 
the  blowing  of  the  sixth  trumpet,  and  the  events 
which  follow ;  the  sounding  of  the  seventh  trumpet 
is  not  recorded  until  we  reach  the  fifteenth  verse 
of  the  eleventh  chapter  :  what  lies  between  is 
best  understood  if  we  regard  it  as  a  parenthesis 
similar  to  the  one  we  found  in  the  seventh 
chapter  between  the  sixth  and  seventh  seals. 
Any  one  who  marks  the  close  connection  between 
the  passage  ending  with  ix.  21  and  the  passage 
beginning  with  xi.  14  will  recognise  that  there  is 
a  breach  at  least  in  the  mechanical  continuity  of 
the  whole;  and  when  attention  is  further  directed 
to  the  contents  of  what  lies  between,  it  discloses 
material  of  a  new  character,  not  directly  con- 
nected with  the  Vision  of  Judgment.  The 
record  of  that  vision  reads  smoothly  and  continu- 
ously if  this  passage  be  omitted.  Only  a  careful 
consideration  of  the  parenthesis  will  make  clear 
its  relations  to  what  stands  before  and  after. 

203 


204      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

Those  who  have  assailed  the  unity  of  the 
Apocalypse  naturally  discover  in  a  passage  like 
this  support  for  their  theory  that  we  have  in  this 
book  the  work  of  several  different  authors  or 
editors,  or  a  Jewish  Apocalypse  worked  up  into 
a  book  for  Christian  edification.  But  of  the 
many  theories  of  partition  which  have  been  put 
forward,  no  one  has  succeeded  in  commending 
itself  to  the  general  assent  of  scholars ;  and  the 
tendency  among  the  best  critics  at  the  present 
time  is  towards  recognising  in  the  Apocalypse  a 
single  original  document,  the  work  of  one  Christian 
hand — the  undoubted  difficulties  being  met  by 
the  theory  that  this  Christian  waiter  on  certain 
occasions  incorporated  in  his  own  work  quotations 
from  earlier  literature  which  may  have  been 
Jewish  in  its  origin.  This  suggestion  need  not, 
however,  arise  in  connection  with  the  tenth 
chapter,  the  most  probable  account  of  which  is 
that  given  by  Bousset. 

''  Chapter  x.  is  in  fact  a  transitional  chapter 
from  the  hand  of  the  Apocalyptist  himself,  which 
is  to  be  regarded  not  as  a  subsequent  addition, 
but  as  a  digression,  in  which  he  is  at  pains  to 
adjust  himself  to  the  future  course  of  his  revela- 
tion, seeing  that  the  fulness  of  the  story  threatens 
gradually  to  introduce  a  certain  confusion.  It  is 
not,  however,  to  be  regarded  as  an  introduction  to 
xi.  1-13  alone ;  rather  does  the  last  verse  {"  Thou 


CHAPTEE  X.-XI.   13  205 

must  prophesy  again  over  many  peoples  and 
nations  and  tongues  and  kings  ")  point  far  beyond 
xi.  13,  right  up  to  chapters  xvii.  and  xviii.  Thus 
does  chapter  x.  stand  in  the  middle  of  the  whole 
great  composition,  and  form  a  powerful  clamp,  by 
means  of  which  the  component  parts  are  held 
together,  which  otherwise  tend  to  fall  asunder. 
It  looks  backwards  in  the  description  of  the 
angel-vision  to  chapter  i.,  in  the  mention  of  the 
angel  of  the  seventh  trumpet  to  the  six  first 
trumpets ;  and  it  looks  forward  to  the  "  mystery 
of  God,'*  which  is  to  unveil  itself  in  chapter  xii., 
the  revelation,  first  sweet  and  then  bitter,  of  the 
fall  of  the  dragon  from  heaven,  and  his  last  great 
conflict  upon  earth."  * 

It  is  an  awe-inspiring  figure  which  the  Apostle 
sees,  *'  a  strong  angel,"  with  face  like  the  sun, 
and  feet  like  pillars  of  fire,  bestriding  both  earth 
and  sea  as  though  he  claimed  both  for  spheres 
of  his  authority.  The  utterance  of  his  voice 
unlooses  the  "seven  thunders,"  by  which  is 
meant  apparently  another  series  of  judgments 
similar  to  those  connected  with  the  seals  on  the 
trumpets.  But  a  voice  from  heaven  forbids  the 
Seer  to  write  the  things  which  are  uttered  by  the 
thunders.  The  angel  then  proclaims  with  solemn 
oath  that  ''time  shall  be  no  longer,  but  in  the 
days  when"  the  seventh  angel  is  about  to  sound, 
^'  Bousset,  Offeribarimg  Johannes^  p.  370. 


206      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

the  mystery  of  God  will  be  fulfilled;  in  other 
words,  the  final  end  waits  only  for  the  sounding 
of  that  trumpet.  At  the  bidding  of  the  same 
voice  as  spoke  to  him  before,  the  Seer  approaches 
the  angel,  and  asks  that  he  should  give  him  "  the 
little  book"  which  is  open  in  his  hand.  He  is 
told  not  only  to  take  it,  but  to  eat  it ;  "it  shall 
make  thy  belly  bitter,  but  in  thy  mouth  it  shall 
be  sweet  as  honey."  This  episode  is  to  be  care- 
fully compared  with  the  similar  one  in  the 
prophecies  of  Ezekiel,  where  the  prophet  is 
prepared  for  speaking  the  word  of  God  to  the 
rebellious  house  of  Israel  by  being  caused  to 
eat  **  a  roll  of  a  book "  :  ''  Son  of  man,  eat 
that  thou  findest;  eat  this  roll,  and  go  speak 
unto  the  house  of  Israel."  *  Ezekiel's  roll  was 
sweet  in  the  mouth,  "  as  honey  for  sweetness  " ; 
but  there  is  no  reference  to  its  being  also  bitter, 
even  though  "  there  was  written  therein  lamenta- 
tions and  mourning  and  woe."  Both  the  resem- 
blance and  the  contrast  are  instructive.  Ezekiel's 
experience  corresponds  with  the  satisfaction  of  a 
man  who  is  filled  with  the  word  of  God,  what- 
ever may  be  the  character  of  the  message  he  has 
to  deliver.  John  is  impressed  rather  with  the 
mingled  character  of  the  revelation  which  is 
symbolically  conveyed  to  him  in  the  **  little 
book."  This  arises  from  the  fact  that  these 
^'  Ezek.  ii.  8-iii.  3. 


CHAPTEK  X.-XI.   13  207 

prophecies  contain  at  once  evil  and  good,  judg- 
ment and  glory,  for  the  wicked  and  the  righteous 
respectively;  but  also  it  expresses  the  mingled 
readiness  and  disinclination  of  every  true  prophet 
to  be  the  mouthpiece  of  the  Divine  wrath. 

What  were  the  contents  of  the  little  book  it  is 
not  possible  to  say,  beyond  this,  that  the  Apostle 
understood  it  to  contain  some  portion,  great  or 
small,  possibly  the  whole,  of  the  Kevelations 
which  follow.  He  is  conscious  that  although 
the  sounding  of  the  seventh  trumpet,  which  is 
immediately  to  follow,  will  mark  the  end  of  the 
process  of  judgment,  there  are  yet  other  things 
given  him  both  to  see  and  to  record,  and  these 
things  form  the  contents  of  the  "little  book.'* 
They  are  found  in  the  last  ten  chapters,  where 
the  writer's  attention  is  specially  occupied  with 
the  Church,  its  struggle  and  discipline,  its  foes 
and  friends,  its  victory  and  peace.  These,  then, 
are  the  contents  of  the  little  book,  as  the  judg- 
rnent-purposes  of  God  toward  the  whole  world 
were  the  contents  of  the  sealed  book  of  chapter  v. 
This  chapter,  therefore,  is  of  great  importance  for 
the  understanding  of  the  construction  of  the 
Apocalypse.  It  expresses  in  symbolic  form  the 
consciousness  of  the  writer  that  after  the  close 
of  the  Vision  of  Judgment  his  work  was  not  to 
come  to  an  end  as  might  have  been  expected,  but 
to  take,  as  it  were,  a  new  start :  "  Thou  must 


208      THE   BOOK  OF   EEVELATION 

prophesy  again."  And  so  it  acts  as  a  great 
bracket  by  which  the  two  parts  of  his  book  are 
held  together. 

The  Mmasueing  of  the  Temple,  and  the 
Two  Witnesses. 

Eev.  xi.  1-13. 

The  eleventh  chapter,  down  to  the  fourteenth 
verse,  where  the  Vision  of  Judgment  is  resumed, 
contains  an  episode  which  until  quite  recently 
has  caused  great  perplexity  to  the  commentators, 
the  prophecy  concerning  the  Two  Witnesses, 
together  with  the  verses  about  the  measimng 
of  the  temple  by  which  this  prophecy  is  intro- 
duced. "There  was  given  unto  me  a  reed  like 
unto  a  rod  :  and  one  said.  Rise,  and  measure  the 
temple  of  God,  and  the  altar,  and  them  that 
worship  therein."  In  the  symbolism  of  Scrip- 
ture, this  act  of  measuring  may  signify  one  of 
three  different  things.  It  may  be  done  with 
a  view  to  building  or  rebuilding,  or  with  a  view 
to  destruction,  or  as  a  symbol  of  preservation  in 
peril  or  from  destruction.  The  following  verse 
leaves  no  doubt  that  it  is  the  last  of  these  sig- 
nifications which  is  here  intended.  The  outer 
court  of  the  Temple  is  not  to  be  measured,  and 
the  reason  is  that  it  has  ''  been  given  to  the 
nations,"  and  to  be  trodden  under  foot  with  the 


CHAPTEE  X.-XI.   13  209 

rest  of  the  Holy  City  for  forty  and  two  months. 
It  follows  that  what  is  to  be  measured  is  marked 
out  for  preservation  when  all  else  falls  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy;  the  Holy  Place  with  the 
altar  and  them  that  worship  therein  are  to  be 
spared.  It  is  a  prophecy  concerning  Jerusalem 
that  when  the  Holy  City  falls  into  the  hands 
of  the  Gentiles,  they  shall  be  withheld  from 
invading  the  inner  court  of  the  Temple  or 
injuring  those  that  worship  there. 

Viewing  these  verses  apart  from  the  context 
in  which  they  stand,  it  is  not  difficult  to  discern 
the  circumstances  to  which  the  prophecy  they 
contain  would  directly  apply,  or  to  fix  the  date 
to  which  they  most  probably  belong.  Jerusalem 
is  still  the  Holy  City,  the  city  with  the  Temple  in 
its  midst.  In  other  words,  the  fatal  year  a.d.  70 
has  not  yet  passed  over  it.  It  is  threatened,  it 
may  be  actually  besieged,  by  the  "  nations  "  ;  that 
is  to  say,  the  Eoman  attack  is  impending,  or 
actually  in  progress,*  when  this  prophecy  is 
uttered  to  encourage  the  faithful  inhabitants 
with  the  assurance  that,  though  the  greater  part 
of  the  city,  and  even  the  outer  court  of  the 
Temple,  must  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy, 

-"■^  Johannes  Weiss  {(Ue  Offerharung  des  Johannes^  p.  130) 
is  of  opinion  that  the  eleventh  chapter  can  be  dated  with 
exactness,  between  May  and  August  of  the  year  70.  A 
later  date  is  impossible. 

15 


210      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

the  inner  court  and  the  sanctuary  will  remain 
inviolate.  We  have  before  us,  in  fact,  a  close 
parallel  to  the  prediction  of  Jesus,  *'  Jerusalem 
shall  be  trodden  dov^n  of  the  Gentiles  until  the 
times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled,"  coupled  with 
the  assurance  that  the  Holy  Place  and  God's  true 
worshippers  therein  shall  escape  destruction. 

These  verses  stand  here  as  an  introduction  to 
the  prophecy  touching  the  two  witnesses.  It  is 
not  easy  to  say  whether  they  were  found  by 
John  already  connected  with  this  ancient  pro- 
phecy, or  whether  it  was  he  who  brought  the 
two  together.  If  we  could  trace  with  any 
certainty  the  spiritual  or  secondary  interpreta- 
tion, which,  being  put  by  him  upon  these  verses, 
might  have  led  him  to  quote  them  from  an 
independent  source,  we  should  be  more  ready 
to  assign  the  collocation  to  himself.  But  there 
is  no  evidence  that  the  Christians  of  the  first 
century  saw  in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  a  symbol 
of  the  universal  Church,  or  that  they  would 
understand  this  prophecy,  standing  by  itself,  as 
having  any  bearing  on  the  circumstances  of  their 
own  time.  It  seems  more  probable,  therefore, 
that  the  Apostle  found  these  verses  already 
forming  an  introduction  to  the  prophecy  of  the 
two  witnesses,  and  quoted  it  as  a  whole. 

We  say  "  quoted,"  for  this  is  one  of  the 
passages    in  the    Kevelation    (three   in    all)   in 


CHAPTEE  X.-XI.   13  211 

which,  if  we  are  to  preserve  the  unity  of 
authorship,  or  indeed  to  approximate  to  an 
understanding  of  the  Book,  we  must  recognise 
that  the  Apostle  is  using  older  material.  Here 
it  is  material  which  has  come  down  to  him  by- 
tradition,  as  elsewhere  it  is  material  furnished 
by  the  Old  Testament.  We  are  prepared  for  this, 
in  the  first  place,  by  the  fact  that  the  whole 
passage  is  a  parenthesis,  breaking  the  continuity 
of  the  Vision  of  Judgment ;  then  by  the  fact  that 
it  introduces  an  altogether  new  circle  of  ideas, 
the  interest  of  which  centres  on  the  earthly  Jeru- 
salem, its  temple,  and  those  that  worship  therein, 
its  fate,  and  the  duration  of  its  misery ;  and  yet 
again  by  the  strange  abruptness  with  which  the 
third  verse  opens  :  **  And  I  (God  or  Christ)  will 
give  unto  my  two  witnesses,  and  they  shall 
prophesy."  The  contents  of  the  passage  which 
follows  to  a  large  extent  confirms  the  suggestion 
to  which  these  observations  give  rise.  It  is  full 
of  ideas  and  phrases  which  are  at  home  in  Jewish 
thought.  And  in  particular  the  subject  of  the 
two  witnesses,  with  which  it  is  concerned,  was 
one  which  played  a  large  part  in  Jewish  anticipa- 
tion of  the  future.  The  anticipation  takes  its 
rise  in  the  prophecy  of  Malachi  (iii.  23,  f.),  is 
the  subject  of  frequent  allusion  in  the  Apoca- 
lyptic literature,  and  makes  its  appearance  in 
several  passages  of  the  Gospel.     As  to  who  the 


212      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

two  witnesses,  the  forerunners  of  Messiah,  were 
to  be,  there  was  considerable  variation  of  opinion. 
One  of  them  was  generally  understood  to  be 
Elijah,  the  other  sometimes  Moses,  sometimes 
Enoch,  sometimes  Jeremiah.  Their  function, 
according  to  Jew^ish  anticipation,  was  to  bear 
public  witness  to  the  falling  away  of  God's  people 
under  the  influence  of  Antichrist,  and  to  urge 
them  to  repentance.  The  tradition  becomes  clear 
as  to  its  details  and  connections  from  the  second 
century  onwards,  and  is  thus  set  forth  by 
Bousset.  From  this  time  onwards,  "an  Apoca- 
lyptic tradition  concerning  the  appearance  of 
Antichrist  can  be  shown  to  exist,  which  cannot 
have  had  its  first  rise  at  the  point  where  we 
recognise  it,  but  had  a  much  higher  antiquity. 
According  to  this  tradition,  it  was  expected  that 
in  Jerusalem  itself  a  God-resisting  power  would 
make  its  appearance,  which  is  conceived  now  as 
tyrant,  now  rather  as  a  false  Messiah,  and  that  it 
would  force  the  whole  people  into  apostasy.  It 
shall  collect  in  Jerusalem  a  great  host  drawn 
from  many  various  nations,  and  exercise  its 
terrible  domination  for  three  years  and  a  half. 
Then  will  stand  forth  against  this  Power  the 
two  witnesses  (an  idea,  the  origin  of  which  is 
still  obscure).  According  to  tradition,  they  are 
Elijah  and  Enoch.  They  will  unmask  the  Anti- 
christ, and,  following  on  their  preaching,  a  large 


CHAPTEK   X.-XI.   la  213 

number  of  the  Jews  will  again  turn  away  from 
Antichrist,  and  be  converted  to  the  old  faith.  On 
that  account  Antichrist  will  slay  the  witnesses, 
and  then  the  believers  will  flee  into  the  wilder- 
ness." *  This  well-estabhshed  and  long-persisting 
tradition  enables  us  to  fix  the  primary  meaning 
of  the  salient  points  in  the  prophecy  before  us. 
It  refers  to  the  earthly  Jerusalem.  Within  its 
walls  the  two  witnesses  are  to  do  their  work. 
The  duration  of  their  prophesying  is  to  cor- 
respond with  the  duration  of  the  domination  of 
Antichrist.  The  miraculous  powers  which  are 
assigned  to  them  are  the  same  as  those  recorded 
as  having  been  used  by  Elijah  and  by  Moses. 
The  '* peoples  and  tribes  and  nations"  who  look 
upon  their  dead  bodies  are  those  assembled  in 
Jerusalem  in  obedience  to  the  summons  of  the 
Antichrist. 

In  all  this  we  see  ideas  and  parts  of  a  tradition 
which  have  their  original  home  in  Judaism.  If 
we  find  a  Christian  Apostle  incorporating  them 
here  in  his  own  Apocalypse,  the  interesting 
questions  for  us  are.  Why  he  does  it  ?  and.  How 
he  does  it  ?  That  he  must  have  attached  a  new, 
a  Christian,  interpretation  to  this  earlier  prophecy 
is  plain,  first,  from  the  fact  that  he  makes  use  of 
it,  and,  secondly,  from  the  traits  and  touches 
which  are  plainly  added  by  his  own  hand. 
'•'  Bousset,  Offenbarung  des  Joharmes,  p.  383. 


214      THE   BOOK  OF   EEVELATION 

Among  them  the  most  conspicuous  and  most 
touching  is  the  phrase,  ''  Where  also  their  Lord 
was  crucified."  How  eloquent  that  is,  first,  of 
the  Apostle's  own  connection  with  that  tragedy, 
then  of  his  deep  appreciation  of  its  meaning. 
That  single  touch  changes  the  whole  character 
of  the  passage,  as  that  event  changed  the  signifi- 
cance of  Jerusalem.  Apart  from  that,  it  was  a  city 
which  "  spiritually  is  called  Sodom  and  Egypt." 
With  that,  viewed  in  the  light  of  that  great  fact, 
it  had  become  once  more  the  symbol  of  God's 
peaceful  dwelling  with  men.  And  He  was  "  their 
Lord,"  that  is  to  say,  the  witnesses  of  whom 
St.  John  is  thinking  are  now  men  who  have 
hailed  Christ  as  Lord  and  God.  And  this  pre- 
pares us  for  the  most  striking  alteration  which 
the  old  material  undergoes  at  his  hand,  the  de- 
scription of  the  resurrection  of  the  "  witnesses." 
"After  the  three  days  and  a  half,  the  breath  of 
life  from  God  entered  into  them,  and  they  stood 
upon  their  feet."  To  this  feature  in  this  prophecy 
there  is  no  parallel  in  the  Jewish  tradition.  We 
see,  therefore,  how  the  Apostle  handled  the 
material  which  he  was  led  to  employ ;  can  we 
trace  any  reason  for  its  use? 

We  have  to  find,  if  possible,  the  link  between 
the  ideas  with  which  the  Apostle's  mind  was 
filled  in  consequence  of  his  visions  in  Patmos, 
and    this   group    of    ideas   with   which   he   was 


CHAPTEE  X.-XI.   13  215 

supplied  by  memory.  Two  such  links  suggest 
themselves.  One  is  the  reference,  in  verse  7,  to 
*'the  beast  that  cometh  up  out  of  the  abyss," 
which  is  to  make  war  with  the  witnesses,  **  and 
overwhelm  them  and  kill  them."  If  this  descrip- 
tion of  the  anti-Messias  formed  part  of  the 
traditional  material  (and  the  way  in  which  the 
description  is  introduced  points  in  that  direction), 
it  may  have  been,  in  part  at  least,  because  of  this 
that  the  Apostle  quoted  this  passage,  giving  to  it 
an  application  to  the  circumstances  of  the  Church, 
and  adding  to  it  the  promise  of  resurrection. 
There  was  what  the  Jews  expected,  Jerusalem  in 
ruins,  the  witnesses  for  God  slain  by  Antichrist, 
the  nations  of  the  world  assembled  to  gape  and 
mock  at  their  dead  bodies.  And  if  there  was  that 
in  his  own  vision  of  the  future  which  corresponded 
with  this  at  many  points,  the  world  in  ruins,  the 
monster  out  of  the  abyss  tyrannising  over  the 
people  of  God,  those  who  kept  the  testimony  of 
Jesus,  paying  for  their  faithfulness  with  their 
lives,  there  was  also  this,  which  changed  it  all, 
that  these  witnesses  for  Christ  lived  again,  and 
"heard  a  great  voice  from  heaven  saying  unto 
them.  Come  up  hither." 

Another,  and  possibly  a  stronger,  link  might 
be  found  in  the  word  "  witnesses  "  itself,  and  the 
ideas  connected  with  it.  In  its  Greek  form  and 
other   cognate  words,   it   occupies   an  important 


216      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

place  in  the  Apocalypse.  The  Apostle  was  con- 
scious that  in  the  very  act  of  delivering  the 
contents  of  the  book,  he  was  ** bearing  witness" 
of  the  word  of  God  (i.  2) ;  it  was  because  of  his 
"witnessing"  to  Jesus  that  he  found  himself 
banished  to  Patmos.  It  was  because  of  "the 
witnessing  of  Jesus  "  that  those  had  been  slain, 
whose  souls  are  gathered  beneath  the  altar  (vi.  9). 
The  one  man,  apart  from  the  author,  whose 
name  is  mentioned  in  the  book  is  Antipas,  "  my 
faithful  witness  "  (ii.  13).  The  word  which  John 
uses  has  passed  over  into  our  language  in  its 
Greek  form  of  "  martyr,"  and  has  undergone  a 
narrowing  of  its  meaning  to  one  w^ho  suffers  death 
for  Christ's  sake.  But  for  the  Apostle  the  witness- 
ing both  before  and  in  the  death,  or  suffering, 
was  equally  important  with  the  death  itself.  The 
idea  has  equal  prominence  in  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
and  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  links  by  which  the 
"  Johannine"  writings  are  united  together.*  If 
the  Messiah,  w^hose  coming  was  still  awaited  by 
the  Jews,  was  to  have  "  witnesses  "  to  prepare 
His  way,  the  Christ,  whose  immediate  return  was 
the  centre  of  John's  Eevelation,  must  have  them 
also,  not   two,  but  many  of  them,  as  many  as 

*  The  word  rendered  above  by  "  witness-bearing  "  (in  the 
English  versions  usually  "testimony")  occurs  nine  times 
in  the  Apocalypse,  foui'teen  times  in  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
six  times  in  the  Epistles  of  John,  elsewhere  in  the  New 
Testament  seven  times  only. 


CHAPTEE  X.-XI.   13  217 

truly  looked  for  His  appearing.  The  point  of 
contact  between  the  Apostle's  mind,  quickened 
by  his  vision,  and  this  earlier  prophecy,  would  be 
not  the  number  of  the  witnesses,  nor  yet  the  great 
men  of  old  with  whom  they  were  traditionally 
identified,  but  their  function,  to  bear  witness  over 
against  a  rebellious  people,  and  their  fate,  to 
suffer  the  last  penalty  at  the  hands  of  Antichrist. 
Not  different  was  the  function,  not  dissimilar 
might  be  the  fate  of  those  who  were  "  witnesses  " 
for  the  returning  Christ.  Only  in  these  points 
was  their  position  different,  that  for  them  their 
Lord  had  been  crucified,  and  for  them  the 
summons  would  come  from  heaven,  "  Come  up 
hither."  It  was  this  which  gave  the  old  prophecy 
value  in  the  Apostle's  sight,  and  it  was  by  the 
addition  of  these  two  great  Christian  ideas  of 
the  death  of  Christ  and  the  resurrection  of  His 
faithful  witnesses,  that  he  gives  it  a  Christian 
interpretation  and  a  place  in  his  Apocalypse. 


THE  THIKD  PAEENTHESIS  :  THE  VISION 
OF  THE  WOMAN,  THE  MAN-CHILD, 
AND   THE   DKAGON 

Kev.  xii. 

The  picture  of  the  future  which  the  Apostle  has 
seen  and  is  charged  to  describe  contains  three 
main  elements — the  judgment  of  God  upon  a 
wicked  and  unbelieving  world,  the  sufferings  of 
the  Church  as  the  victim  of  world-powers  which 
have  authority  to  exercise  their  tyranny  for  a 
season,  and  the  final  victory  of  Christ  followed 
by  the  glories  and  peace  of  heaven.  These 
elements  interpenetrate  one  another  throughout 
the  book,  but  in  different  sections  one  element  or 
other  predominates.  Thus,  in  the  section  which 
we  have  just  left  (chaps,  vi.-xi.),  the  main 
contents  is  concerned  with  the  process  of  judg- 
ment by  which  God  vindicates  His  righteousness 
before  the  return  of  Christ.  In  the  closing 
section  (chaps,  xix.-xxii.)  the  governing  idea  is 
that  of  the  victory  of  Christ  and  the  bliss  of  the 
redeemed.     In  that  with  which  we  have  now  to 


CHAPTEK  XII.  219 

do  (chaps,  xii.-xviii.)  it  is  the  enemies  of  the 
Church,  their  tyranny,  and  the  sufferings  she  is 
to  endure  at  their  hands  round  which  the  visions 
are  grouped.  The  fourteenth  chapter  provides  a 
contrast  and  reHef,  but  the  author's  task  in  these 
chapters  is  to  unveil  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
and  to  explain  their  power. 

The  second  parenthesis  has  been  followed  by 
the  completion  of  the  series  of  judgments  ushered 
in  by  the  trumpets ;  a  definite  pause  has  been 
reached  in  the  unrolling  of  the  Vision  of  Judg- 
ment, which  is  resumed  and  completed  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  chapters.  The  tenth 
chapter,  with  its  vision  of  the  "  little  book  "  and 
its  suggestion  of  a  new  experience  of  insight  into 
the  future,  accompanied  by  the  declaration,  "  thou 
shalt  prophesy  again,"  prepares  us  for  a  new 
subject  and  what  looks  like  a  fresh  start.  The 
subject  is  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  treated 
most  fully  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  ;  and  to  that 
we  have  in  the  chapter  before  us  an  introduction, 
which   also   is   a   parenthesis.*      With   the   two 

'•'  One  purpose  of  this  description  given  to  the  three 
passages  is  to  facilitate  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  book 
as  a  whole.  Possibly  the  whole  three  chapters  (xii.-xiv.) 
should  be  reckoned  as  a  parenthesis  here ;  the  Vision  of 
Judgment  would  then  stand  as  a  compact  whole.  This  is 
the  view  taken  in  the  Century  Bible,  but  it  might  seem  to 
ignore  the  salient  importance  of  chap.  xiii. ;  and  it  is  better, 
perhaps,  to  confine  the  description  to  chapter  xii.,  always 


220      THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

chapters  which  follow,  it  also  breaks  the  con- 
tinuity of  the  Vision  of  Judgment.  And  we  shall 
find  that  it  partakes  in  a  marked  degree  of  the 
characteristics  by  which  the  first  and  second 
parentheses  are  marked. 

The  difficulty  of  this  chapter  is  obvious  to  every 
reader.  It  is  probably  felt  to  be  the  most  difficult 
chapter  in  the  book.  The  narrative  itself  is 
straightforward  enough,  but  it  introduces  us  to 
a  course  of  events  so  extraordinary  that  we  can 
neither  picture  them  as  actually  happening,  nor 
interpret  them  as  symbols.  And  yet  we  are 
conscious  of  an  elusive  substance  below  the 
surface  of  the  picture  which,  could  we  but  grasp 
it,  w^ould  prove  to  be  familiar  as  household  words, 
and  yet  precious  as  a  new  discovery.  "  Through 
its  fissures  we  get  hints  "  of  the  birth  of  Christ, 
of  the  attempted  destruction  of  the  child  by 
Herod,  of  His  ascension  to  God,  of  the  discom- 
fiture of  the  powers  of  evil,  and  the  certain 
victory  of  the  saints.  And  yet,  were  this  the 
presentation  in  vision-form  of  the  events  of 
Christ's  life,  are  these  the  events,  w^e  ask  our- 
selves, which  the  Apostle  John  would  relate  to 
the  exclusion  of  others — the  death,  the  resurrec- 

remembering  that  the  Vision  of  the  Bowls  is  still  to  come. 
It  is  important  to  observe  that  on  this  arrangement  each  of 
the  three  "parentheses"  not  only  contains,  but  lai-gely  or 
almost  wholly  consists  of,  material  quoted  by  the  writer. 


CHAPTEE  XII.  221 

tion?  And  how  are  we  to  account  for  and 
interpret  the  strange  imagery  in  which  the 
allusions  to  these  events,  if  such  they  be,  are 
embedded  and  even  expressed? 

To  take  only  one  example,  verses  15  and  16 
give  us  a  picture  to  which  there  is  no  parallel 
and  no  key  in  all  the  symboHsm  of  Scripture, 
for  which  commentators  and  expositors  have 
sought  in  vain  to  find  a  satisfactory  interpreta- 
tion in  the  history  of  the  Church.  "  The  serpent 
cast  out  of  his  mouth  after  the  woman  water  as  a 
river,  that  he  might  cause  her  to  be  carried  away 
by  the  stream.  And  the  earth  helped  the  woman, 
and  the  earth  opened  her  mouth,  and  swallowed 
up  the  river  which  the  dragon  cast  out  of  his 
mouth."  Of  all  the  explanations  of  this  strange 
picture  which  have  been  offered,  that  of  Dean 
Alford  is  perhaps  the  most  plausible.  He  lays 
stress  on  the  numerous  parallels  found  in  this 
chapter  to  the  experiences  of  Israel  escaping  from 
Egypt.  "  There  we  have  the  flight  into  the 
wilderness;  there,  again,  the  forty-two  stations 
corresponding  to  the  forty-two  months  of  the 
three  years  and  a  half  of  this  prophecy;  there, 
too,  the  miraculous  passage  of  the  Eed  Sea,  not 
indeed  in  strict  correspondence  with  this  last 
feature,  but  at  least  suggestive  of  it."  But  it 
may  be  asked  how  would  these  allusions  to  the 
Exodus  be  in  place  after  what  is  understood  to 


222      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

describe  the  birth  of  the  Messiah,  or  of  Jesus  ? 
Or  what  is  there  in  the  experience  of  Israel 
before  the  Exodus  which  might  be  symboHsed  by 
the  birth  of  the  child  ?  Proceeding  to  an  historical 
interpretation,  Alford  suggests  that  the  river  may 
stand  for  the  Koman  armies  which  threatened  to 
sweep  away  Christianity  in  the  wreck  of  the 
Jewish  nation  ;  or  of  the  persecution  which 
followed  the  Church  into  her  retreats,  but  even- 
tually became  absorbed  by  the  civil  power  turning 
Christian ;  or  of  the  influx  of  heretical  opinions 
from  the  pagan  philosophies,  which  threatened  to 
swamp  the  true  faith.  We  may  indeed  see  in 
one,  or  in  all,  of  these  events  historical  analogy 
to  what  is  symbolically  predicted  here ;  but  only 
the  first  can  be  said  to  lie  within  the  horizon  of 
the  future,  as  the  Apostle  saw  it,  and  that  is 
hardly  adequate  to  the  rest  of  the  prophecy. 
Besides,  is  it  conceivable  that,  with  any  of  these 
generalities  before  his  mind,  the  Seer  would  have 
thrown  them  into  the  form  of  such  symbols  as 
these  ?  Indeed,  does  not  the  interpretation  leave 
much,  and  that  just  the  most  perplexing  part,  of 
the  imagery  unexplained?  The  earth  "helping 
the  woman "  by  swallowing  up  the  river  finds 
no  parallel  in  any  event  in  the  history  of  the 
Church.  We  cannot,  therefore,  but  concur  in 
the  conclusion  to  which  Alford  comes :  "I  con- 
fess that  not  one  of  these  [interpretations]  seems 


CHAPTEE  XII.  223 

to  me  satisfactorily  to  answer  the  conditions ;  nor 
do  we  gain  anything  by  their  combination." 

The  possibiHties  of  explanation  of  this  chapter 
as  it  stands,  appearing  thus  to  be  exhausted,  we 
may  be  prepared  to  test  the  suggestion  that  here 
again,  for  the  third  time,  we  have  the  Apostle 
quoting  an  earlier  prophecy,  to  which  he  gives  a 
Christian  interpretation.  We  observe,  in  the  first 
place,  the  remarkable  and  unusual  way  in  which 
the  chapter  opens.  The  writer  does  not  say  that 
he  saw  this  vision  ;  in  this  instance  alone  of  all 
the  visions  recorded  in  his  book,  the  account 
begins  thus,  "And  there  was  seen."  And  here 
only  that  which  was  seen  is  described  as  "  a  sign." 
These  points  seem  at  once  to  differentiate  this 
vision  from  those  seen  by  John  himself.  The  sign 
was  seen  **in  the  sky,"  that  is  to  say,  on  the 
plane  of  a  vision,  so  that  no  difficulty  need  be  felt 
when  subsequently  we  find  the  child  being  caught 
up  to  heaven  as  though  from  earth,  or  the  woman 
fleeing  "  into  the  wilderness."  The  woman  gives 
birth  to  a  child,  "  who  is  to  rule  all  nations  with  a 
rod  of  iron."  That  puts  beyond  question  who  is 
meant  by  the  child.  The  quotation  from  the 
Messianic  Psalm  shows  that  he  is  the  Messiah. 
Still,  this  might  be  either  the  Messiah  looked  for 
by  the  Jews,  or  Jesus,  the  Messiah  whom  the 
Christians  believed  to  have  come.  But  he  is 
caught  up,  apparently  at  once,  to  the  throne  of 


224      THE   BOOK   OF  EEVELATION 

God ;  and  here  the  vision  breaks  away  from  the 
history  of  Jesus ;  we  hear  no  more  of  the  child. 
But  if  the  child  stands  originally  not  for  Jesus, 
but  for  the  Messiah,  then  the  woman  stands  for 
Israel,  probably  the  ideal  Israel,  whose  glory  is 
described  with  unimaginable  splendour  in  the  first 
verse,  "  a  woman  arrayed  with  the  Sun,  and  the 
moon  under  her  feet,  and  upon  her  head  a  crown 
of  twelve  stars."  The  main  interest  of  the 
prophecy  rests  upon  the  woman,  her  fortunes,  and 
her  fate.  The  dragon,  the  Antichrist,  had  been  at 
first  the  enemy  of  her  child,  the  Messiah ;  but  the 
end  of  the  prophecy  describes  how  he  became 
incensed  against  the  woman  herself,  and  "  perse- 
cuted the  woman  which  brought  forth  the  man- 
child."  The  reason  is  that  in  the  meantime  there 
has  been  *'  war  in  heaven."  "  Michael  and  his 
angels  "  have  fought  with  the  dragon,  and  have 
prevailed,  and  the  great  dragon  has  been  cast 
down  to  the  earth  with  his  angels.  But  why 
**  Michael  "  ?  His  name  stands  for  a  figure  which 
is  prominent  enough  in  the  Apocalyptic  literature 
of  the  Jews,  but  is  mentioned  only  twice  in  the 
New  Testament.  The  allusion  in  Jude  (verse  9)  is 
almost  certainly  based  upon  something  related  in 
the  Assumption  of  Moses;  does  it  not  seem  as 
though  there  must  be  a  similar  source  for  the 
allusion  here  ?  It  was  entirely  in  accordance  with 
the  conceptions  of  Judaism  that  Michael  should 


CHAPTEK  XII.  225 

appear  as  the  champion  of  Israel,*  as  the  captain 
of  the  hosts  of  the  Lord.  But  Christian  thought 
assigns  that  place  and  function  to  Christ  Jesus, 
and  to  Him  alone.  It  is  He  who,  later  on  in  this 
same  book,  appears  at  the  head  of  "the  armies 
which  are  in  heaven";  it  is  against  Him  that  *'the 
kings  of  the  earth  and  their  armies  are  gathered 
together  to  make  war"  (xix.  20).  If  we  find  that 
in  this  passage  another  takes  His  place,  the  pre- 
sumption is  very  strong  that  the  Apostle  is  making 
use  of  older,  and  of  Jewish  material.! 

The  dragon  being  overcome  by  the  angelic 
champion  of  Israel  and  "  cast  out  of  heaven," 
proceeds  to  wreak  his  vengeance  on  those  to 
whom  he  owes  his  discomfiture.  But  help  comes 
to  the  woman.  She  flees  "  into  the  wilderness," 
and  there  is  nourished  for  the  period  over  which 
the  .reign  of  Antichrist  extends.  Another  attempt 
on  the  part  of  her  enemy  to  compass  her  destruc- 
tion is  frustrated  by  "the  earth  opening  her  mouth 
and  swallowing  up  the  river  " ;  after  which  the 
dragon,  waxing  yet  more  wroth,  goes  away  "  to 
make  war  with  the  rest  of  her  seed." 

*  Cf.  Dan.  xii.  1,  with  x.  13. 

f  See  E.  H.  Charles,  art.  "  Michael,"  in  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  "  Here  the  figure  of  Michael  thrusts 
aside  that  of  the  Messiah :  for  it  is  Michael  and  not  the 
Child  that  overthrows  Satan  when  storming  the  heavens — a 
fact  which  speaks  strongly  for  the  Jewish  origin  of  most  of 
Eev.  xii." 

16 


226      THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

Up  to  this  point  we  found  nothing  in  this 
chapter  so  easily  detachable  from  its  context, 
which  conflicts  with  the  theory  that  in  its  original 
form  it  was  a  Jewish  prophecy;  and  we  have 
found  not  a  little  to  support  it.  In  that  form  it 
would  be  a  prophecy  of  the  "  Messianic  woes," 
which  were  to  fall  upon  Israel  before  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah,  "  the  sufferings  that  lead  up  to 
the  Christ."  *  The  peculiar  feature  of  this 
prophecy  would  be  that  these  woes  are  described 
as  following  on  the  birth  of  the  child  who  was  to 
be  the  Messiah.  And  that  is  the  very  point  on 
which  we  may  suppose  that  the  Apostle's  mind 
would  fasten.  For  him  and  for  his  fellow-believers 
in  Jesus  that  child  had  been  already  born,  accord- 
ing to  prophecy.  Moreover,  He  ascended  to  the 
throne  of  God,  and  His  followers  were  waiting 
anxiously  for  His  return.  The  sufferings  which, 
according  to  this  prophecy,  were  to  be  the  portion 
of  ideal  Israel,  were  of  the  same  kind,  and  due  to 
the  same  evil  forces  as  those  which,  according  to 
John's  own  vision,  were  to  be  the  portion  of 
Christ's  true  Church.  This  prophecy,  therefore, 
had  a  meaning  for  Christ's  disciples,  which  was 
plain  to  the  man  who  had  seen  the  vision  of  His 
return;  it  gave  a  clue  to  the  understanding  of 
that  tribulation  through  which  the  Church  was 
about  to  pass.  The  case  is  parallel  to  the  wit- 
-  1  Pet.  i.  11 ;  see  Exjoositor,  1905,  pp.  234  ff. 


CHAPTEE  XII.  227 

nesses  in  the  eleventh  chapter.  If  Israel  was  to 
have  witnesses  going  before  the  Messiah,  and  to 
suffer  many  things  at  the  hand  of  Antichrist 
before  Messiah  came,  much  more  must  the  Church 
have  her  witnesses,  and  "  make  up  that  which 
was  lacking"  in  the  sufferings  which  were  to  be 
endured  before  Jesus  the  Christ  returned. 

We  see  now  how  this  prophecy,  which  had  first 
been  current  in  Jewish  circles,  may  have  presented 
itself  to  the  mind  of  St.  John  as  capable  of  appli- 
cation to  the  Christians  for  whom  he  wrote. 
Before  mentioning  another  point  of  attachment, 
let  us  observe  the  indications  of  the  way  in  which 
he  interpreted  it,  and  how  he  adapted  it  for  his 
own  purpose.  There  are  two  passages  which  are 
undoubtedly  added  by  his  hand,  verses  10  and  11, 
and  the  end  of  verse  17.  In  these  passages  we 
hear  again  the  great  language  of  the  Apocalypse. 
In  the  first  we  have  the  proclamation  of  victory 
over  Satan  with  its  ringing  note  of  triumph,  and 
its  emphasis  on  the  rank  and  authority  of  Christ : 
"  Now  is  come  the  salvation,  and  the  power,  and 
the  kingdom  of  our  God,  and  the  authority  of  his 
Christ."  We  note  that  Michael  has  no  place  in 
this  song  of  victory ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
suggested  that  Satan  has  been  overcome  by  **  our 
brethren,"  who  "  loved  not  their  life  even  unto 
death  "  ;  and  they  overcame  him  "  because  of  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb."     They  are  the  martyrs  for 


228      THE   BOOK  OF   REVELATION 

the  testimony  of  Jesus,  whom  even  in  heaven  the 
Accuser  has  accused,*  but  in  vain.  '*  These  are 
they  which  have  washed  their  robes,  and  made 
them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  " ;  and  in 
the  power  of  that  sacrifice  they  prevail  even 
against  their  fell  accuser. 

In  the  second  of  these  passages  (verse  17b)  we 
have  the  clue  to  the  Apostle's  interpretation  of 
the  figure  of  the  woman.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  prophecy  this  figure  stood  for  him  as  for  those 
who  first  heard  it,  as  representing  Israel;  for  a 
Jew  it  would  be  Israel  from  which  the  Messiah 
was  to  spring ;  for  the  Christian  Apostle  it  would 
be  Israel  out  of  which  Jesus  had  been  bom.  But 
the  ideal  Israel,  "  arrayed  with  the  sun,"  who  gives 
birth  to  the  Christ,  is  interpreted  at  the  close  of 
the  prophecy,  as  the  mother  of  His  ''brethren"  ; 
*'her  seed,"  which  for  a  Jew  would  mean  faithful 
members  of  the  Covenant-people,  is  now  explained 
as  equivalent  to  those  *'  which  keep  the  command- 
ments of  God,  and  hold  the  testimony  of  Jesus." 
The  presence  of  these  words  shows  that  John  now 
understood  by  the  woman  the  Church  of  Christ. 
Her  "  seed  "  were  the  disciples  of  Christ  against 
whom  "the  old  serpent,  Satan,"  was  bringing  all 
his  power  to  bear. 

This  brings  us  to  another  and  probably  a  very 
important  point  of  contact  between  the  mind  of 
^!=  Cf.  Zech.  iii.  1-4. 


CHAPTEE  XII.  229 

the  Apostle  filled  with  the  contents  of  his  own 
vision,  and  this  remembered  piece  of  prophecy. 
We  have  noticed  the  general  analogy  to  events  in 
the  life  of  Jesus  and  the  close  correspondence 
between  the  persecution  of  faithful  Israel  pre- 
sented in  the  prophecy  and  the  tribulation  to  fall 
upon  the  Church,  anticipated  by  St.  John  ; 
another  point  of  contact  may  be  found  in  the 
power  by  which  both  the  persecution  of  Israel 
and  the  persecution  of  the  Church  are  set  in 
motion.  In  chap.  xii.  we  are  told  how  the 
dragon,  being  cast  out  of  heaven,  began  to  per- 
secute the  woman  and  her  seed;  in  chap,  xiii., 
when  John  describes  his  own  vision,  the  agent 
of  persecution  is  "the  beast,"  and  it  is  "the 
dragon"  that  "gave  him  his  power,  and  his 
throne,  and  his  authority."  Again  we  find  an 
analogy  between  the  second  parenthesis  and  the 
third.  As  the  former  introduces  "  the  beast  that 
Cometh  up  out  of  the  abyss,"  so  the  latter  intro- 
duces the  dragon  which  gave  him  his  power. 
Among  other  reasons  which  led  the  Apostle  to 
incorporate  this  earlier  prophecy,  we  may  see 
this,  that  it  shows  that  the  power  behind  the 
beast  is  the  same  which  pursued  Jesus  with  its 
hatred,  had  laid  wait  for  Him,  tempted  Him, 
finally  compassed  His  death ;  but  the  same  also 
which  He  had  spurned,  thwarted,  overcome,  and 
trodden  under  foot  in  His  resurrection.  Moreover, 


230      THE   BOOK   OF   BEVELATION 

this  prophecy  describes  how  Satan  has  been 
overthrown,  and  cast  out  of  heaven.  His  very 
activity  on  earth  is  due  to  his  defeat  in  heaven. 
And  St.  John  is  fully  purposed  that  through  all 
that  follows  of  the  revelation  of  persecution  and 
suffering  to  come,  his  readers  shall  have  this 
great  fact  vividly  present  to  their  minds.  Their 
enemy,  their  accuser,  the  power  behind  their 
persecutors  is  potent  upon  earth ;  but  he  has 
been  overthrown  in  heaven;  he  knoweth  "that 
he  hath  but  a  short  time."  Let  them  know  it  too. 


THE  MONSTKOUS  POWEK  OF  EVIL 

Rev.  xiii. 

The  reading  adopted  by  the  Eevised  Version 
which  yields  the  translation,  "  he  stood  by  the 
sand  of  the  sea,"  and  makes  this  clause  part  of 
the  last  verse  of  the  previous  chapter,  is  the  one 
v^hich  is  attested  by  the  best  authorities;  and 
although  many  of  the  editors  still  prefer  the  old 
reading,  "  I  stood,"  the  new  one  helps  to  mark 
emphatically  the  connection  between  the  two 
chapters.  The  monstrous  Powers  of  Evil  whose 
appearance  and  activities  are  to  be  described  in 
the  thirteenth  chapter,  owe  their  *'  power  and 
authority  "  to  the  dragon,  "  the  old  serpent,"  or 
Satan.  It  was  the  dragon  that  men  worshipped, 
when  they  "  bowed  to  the  authority  of  the 
beast "  ;  and  the  foregoing  chapter  has  served  a 
double  purpose  in  introducing  the  present  vision. 
In  the  first  place,  it  has  explained  how  the  dragon 
comes  to  be  active  in  the  affairs  of  earth,  and 
specially  bent  on  persecuting  the  disciples  of 
Jesus.    He  had  sought  to  destroy  the  child  of  the 

231 


232      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

woman — Israel ;  and  when  he  had  been  foiled  in 
that  attempt,  then  had  followed  "  war  in  heaven," 
the  end  of  which  was  that  the  dragon  was  "  cast 
down  to  the  earth."  Cast  down  from  heaven,  he 
proceeds  to  persecute  the  woman,  in  whom  the 
Apostle  now  recognises  the  Church  of  Christ,  and 
"  to  make  war  with  the  rest  of  her  seed,  which 
keep  the  commandments  of  God,  and  hold  the 
testimony  of  Jesus."  And  he  does  this  by  giving 
power  to  "the  beast."  But  the  twelfth  chapter 
does  yet  more  than  provide  this  explanation  of 
the  source  of  the  beast's  authority:  it  sets 
forth  the  supremely  important  fact  that  for 
all  his  power  on  earth,  and  the  dreadful 
cruelty  with  which  he  exercises  it,  the  dragon 
has  been  overthrown  in  heaven ;  it  follows 
that  he  must  ere  long  be  overthrown  on 
earth.  In  heaven  there  is  already  great  joy  over 
the  casting  down  of  the  **  accuser  of  the 
brethren  "  :  then  the  song  of  triumph  is  already 
heard :  "  Now  is  come  the  salvation,  and  the 
power,  and  the  kingdom,  of  our  God,  and  the 
authority  of  his  Christ."  And  though  there 
must  needs  be  "woe  for  the  earth,"  it  is  only 
"for  a  short  time."  By  setting  this  ancient 
vision-prophecy  in  advance  of  his  own  vision  of 
the  two  monsters,  St.  John  does  the  best  that 
could  be  done  to  kindle  the  courage  of  those  who 
have  to  face  such  a  future.     The  effect  of  the  two 


CHAPTEK  XIII.  233 

chapters  taken  together  is  indeed  to  present  in  a 
highly  pictorial  form  the  exact  situation  described 
by  Christ :  ''  In  the  world  ye  shall  have  tribula- 
tion :  but  be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
world." 

The  enmity  of  the  defeated  Satan  wreaks  itself 
upon  the  Church  of  his  Vanquisher  through  the 
power  and" cruelty  of  the  first  monster;  and  the 
power  of  the  first  monster  is  promoted  and  his 
cruelty  abetted  by  the  second  monster  which  is 
here  described.  Now,  these  strange  figures  stand 
for  very  real  things,  for  forces  and  personalities 
which  were  only  too  real  for  the  Christians  of  Asia 
Minor  at  the  end  of  the  first  century ;  but  these 
again  may  be  recognised  as  the  incarnation  of 
"  spiritual  wickedness  "  which  did  not  cease  to  be 
active  when  the  forces  of  the  first  century  passed 
away,  but  moves  in  other  forces  and  it  may  be  in 
other  personalities  which  are  no  less  real  in  this 
twentieth  century.  We  have  to  find  what  these 
figures  meant  for  the  writer  and  the  first  readers 
of  the  Apocalypse,  and  the  question  of  what  they 
respectively  stand  for,  leads  us  on  to  a  field  of 
study,  which,  though  it  may  be  unfamiliar,  is 
nevertheless  of  fascinating  interest. 

Before  proceeding,  however,  to  the  explanation 
of  these  figures,  it  may  be  well  to  deal  with  a 
possible  objection  coming  from  those  to  whom 
the  attempt  to  find   any  explanation  may  seem 


234      THE   BOOK  OF   REVELATION 

hopeless  if  not  absurd.  These  apocalyptic  figures 
are  so  bizarre,  in  some  of  their  details  so  fantastic, 
that  they  resemble  what  indeed  they  purport  to 
be,  the  contents  of  a  dream  or  a  vision ;  a  beast 
with  ten  horns  and  seven  heads,  with  diadems 
the  horns,  and  upon  the  heads  *'  names  of  blas- 
phemy," is  a  figure  as  difficult  to  take  seriously  as 
it  is  remote  from  experience.  Do  not  such  figures 
by  their  very  incoherence  warn  us  off  from  any 
attempt  to  find  a  meaning  for  them,  other  than 
as  adding,  perhaps,  to  the  impression  of  horror 
and  catastrophe  ?  To  such  objections  the  answer 
is  provided  by  even  a  cursory  examination  of  the 
other  books  which  belong  to  the  apocalyptic  class. 
There  we  find  that  figures  such  as  these,  and  even 
more  fantastic  ones,  play  an  even  greater  part 
than  they  do  in  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John;  that 
they  belong,  in  fact,  to  a  system  of  conventional 
symbolism  which  was  employed  by  these  writers 
for  the  purpose  of  conveying  quite  definite  ideas. 
This  is  placed  beyond  doubt  by  the  interpretation 
of  the  symbols,  by  which  in  several  cases  they  are 
accompanied.  The  earliest  case  both  of  the  use 
of  such  symbols  and  their  interpretation  is  found 
in  the  apocalyptic  portion  of  the  Book  of  Daniel. 
There,  in  the  seventh  chapter,  we  have  a  vision 
of  four  monsters,  a  lion  with  eagle's  wings,  one 
"  like  a  bear,"  one  like  a  leopard,  and  one  with 
ten  horns;  and  the  explanation  is  added:  *'  These 


CHAPTER  XIII.  235 

great  monsters,  which  are  four,  are  four  kings, 
which  shall  arise  out  of  the  earth  "  (vii.  17) ;  and, 
"  The  ten  horns  out  of  this  kingdom  are  ten  kings 
that  shall  arise"  (vii.  24).  "Whether  this  passage 
in  Daniel  was  the  earliest  instance  of  the  use  of 
this  symbolism,  or  not,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
it  became  the  source  or  model  of  much  subsequent 
writing  of  the  same  kind.  Each  successive  writer 
of  an  Apocalypse  was  to  some  extent  an  inter- 
preter of  earlier  apocalyptic  predictions.  And 
he  indicated  his  interpretation  largely  by  the  way 
in  which  he  handled  the  traditional  symbols,  by 
alterations  and  modifications  which  he  introduced 
into  the  pictures  left  by  one  or  other  of  his 
predecessors.  In  the  fourth  Book  of  Ezra,  an 
Apocalypse  which  was  written  about  the  same 
time  as  the  Eevelation  of  John,  we  find 
this  kind  of  symbolic  writing  most  highly  de- 
veloped. Here  are  a  succession  of  visions  in 
which  birds  and  animals  of  monstrous  shape 
appear;  and  each  of  them  is  followed  by  an 
interpretation  given  by  an  angel.  To  take  only 
one  example.  An  eagle  is  seen  rising  out  of  the 
sea,  which  has  three  heads,  twelve  wings,  and 
eight  "secondary"  wings.  A  voice  proceeding 
out  of  the  body  commands  the  wings  to  awake  at 
their  proper  time,  but  the  heads  to  sleep  for  the 
present.  The  wings  accordingly  awake,  and 
*'  reign,"  the   earHer   ones  for   longer,   the  later 


236      THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

ones  for  shorter,  periods,  and  then  disappear. 
Then  the  heads  are  roused;  the  middle  one 
devours  some  of  the  "secondary"  wings,  and 
disappears,  whereupon  one  of  the  others  destroys 
the  third.  Then  a  lion  is  seen  which  rebukes  the 
eagle,  and  announces  that  judgment  is  about  to 
overtake  it. 

The  interpretation  of  this  vision,  which  is  given 
by  the  angel,  will  show  the  way  in  which  these 
apocalyptic  symbols  were  used.  "  The  eagle 
whom  thou  sawest  rising  up  out  of  the  sea,  is  the 
fourth  kingdom  which  appeared  to  thy  brother 
Daniel  in  his  vision ;  it  is  true,  it  was  not  so 
interpreted  to  him  as  I  am  now  to  interpret  it 
to  thee."  The  twelve  wings  are  then  explained 
to  mean  "twelve  kings"  who  are  to  reign  one 
after  another.  The  eight  "secondary"  wings 
are  also  kings,  but  kings  whose  reigns  are  to  be 
short.  The  three  heads  represent  three  kings 
who  are  to  rule  with  more  energy  and  do  more 
mischief  than  all  the  rest.  The  "  disappearance" 
of  one  head  signifies  that  that  king  is  to  die  in 
his  bed.  The  other  two  are  to  die  by  the  sword. 
"  The  lion,  however,  which  burst  forth  out  of  the 
wood  before  thine  eyes,  with  a  mighty  roar,  who 
spoke  to  the  eagle,  and  rebuked  it  for  all  its  sins, 
that  is  the  Messiah  whom  the  Most  High  hath 
kept  unto  the  end  of  the  days,  who  shall  arise 
and  stand  forth  from  the  seed  of  David," 


CHAPTER  XIII.  237 

Assisted  by  this  interpretation,  modern  scholars 
have  recognised  in  the  eagle  the  Eoman  Empire ; 
in  the  twelve  wings,  twelve  emperors,  beginning 
with  Caesar;  in  the  *' secondary  "  wings  like  pre- 
tenders to  the  throne,  or,  more  probably,  local 
governors  of  Syria  and  Egypt ;  and  in  the  three 
heads,     the    Emperors   Vespasian,    Titus,     and 
Domitian.      Thus,   in   an  Apocalypse,  which  is 
practically  contemporary  with  our  own  we  find 
figures  and  statements  made  about  them  which 
are  of  the  same  type  as  those  which  meet  us 
here;  and  we  find  also  that  the  central  figure 
is  a   symbol  for  the  Eoman  Empire,  its  wings 
symbols  for  emperors  and  rulers,  and  the  things 
which  happen  to   them  symbohc  expressions  of 
what  has  happened  or  is  to  happen  to  the  persons 
they  represent.     We  see  further  that  the  special 
contribution  of  any  one  writer  of  an  Apocalypse 
may  have  to  be  sought,  not  in  the  main  figures, 
which  form,  as   it  were,  the   common  basis  of 
apocalyptic   tradition,    but    in  the  modification 
which   he  introduces.     The   monster  in    Daniel 
has    ''ten  horns";    if  the    monster    here    has 
"  seven   heads "    as  well,  the  addition  is  made 
with  definite  purpose,  in  order  to  bring  the  figure 
into  relation  with  a  new  historical  situation.     It 
is  clear,  therefore,  that  we  are  justified  in  looking 
for  an  explanation  of  these  figures  and  of  the 
special  features  by  which  they  are  distinguished. 


238      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

They  represent  political  or  social  realities,  and 
their  action  reproduces  the  action  of  forces  by 
which  the  Christians  were,  or  were  to  be, 
seriously  affected. 

*'  I  (or  he)  stood  on  the  shore  of  the  sea,"  on 
the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  ''  and  I  saw  a 
monster  coming  up  out  of  the  sea,"  that  is  as 
a  power  whose  seat  was  in  the  West.  The 
monster  was  "  like  unto  a  leopard,  and  his  feet 
were  as  the  feet  of  a  bear,  and  his  mouth  as  the 
mouth  of  a  lion."  Plainly  the  writer  had  before 
his  mind  the  vision  of  Daniel,  and  means  to 
suggest  that  this  new  power  combines  in  itself 
the  forces  and  qualities  of  the  world-empires  which 
had  gone  before,  the  Babylonian,  the  Median, 
and  the  Persian.  The  power  which  does  so  at 
the  end  of  the  first  century  and  takes  the  place  of 
Daniel's  four  kingdoms  as  controlling  the  earthly 
destinies  of  God's  people,  is  the  Koman  Empire. 
The  monster  has  ten  horns  and  seven  heads. 
These  represent  kings  (xvii.  10),  in  this  case 
Eoman  "Emperors."  Upon  the  horns  are 
diadems,  upon  the  heads  "names  of  blasphemy." 
The  distinction  gives  a  possible  clue  to  the 
respective  significance  of  the  heads  and  the 
horns.  The  ten  horns  represent  the  whole  of  the 
ten  rulers  of  the  Empire  who  wore  the  crown ; 
the  seven  heads,  those  of  the  ten  who  bore  also 
the  "  names  of  blasphemy,"  that  is,  those  who 


CHAPTER  XIII.  239 

reigned  long  enough  to  have  temples  erected  in 
their  honour  under  the  name  of  "  The  Divine 
Augustus."  It  is  not  certain  whether  the  reckon- 
ing of  the  ''  ten  "  is  to  begin  from  Augustus,  or 
from  Julius  Caesar;  but  in  either  case  three  of 
the  number  (Galba,  Otto,  and  Vitellius)  reigned 
only  for  a  few  months;  and  it  is  not  probable 
that  worship  was  demanded  from  the  Christians 
of  Asia  Minor  for  their  names  as  it  was  for  the 
others. 

The  most  striking  detail  in  this  picture  is  the 
statement  that  one  of  the  heads  was  "  as  though 
it  had  been  smitten  unto  death ;  and  his  death- 
stroke  was  healed."  The  clue  to  the  meaning 
of  this  symbol  is  to  be  sought  in  connection  with 
the  passage  in  xvii.  10, 11,  where  we  are  told  that 
of  the  seven  kings,  "  the  five  are  fallen,  the  one 
is,  the  other  is  not  yet  come ;  and  when  he 
cometh,  he  must  continue  a  little  while.  And 
the  beast  that  was,  and  is  not,  is  himself  also  an 
eighth,  and  is  of  the  seven."  In  the  one  case, 
one  of  the  heads  is  apparently  smitten  unto 
death,  but  its  death-stroke  is  healed.  In  the 
other  case,  one  of  the  seven,  who  is  described  as, 
pa7'  excellence,  the  monster,  was,  and  is  not,  but 
is  to  revive  or  re-appear,  to  rank  as  the  eighth 
of  the  series.  In  both  these  passages  we 
have  an  allusion  to  the  same  legend  in  slightly 
different  forms.     The  death  of  the  Emperor  Nero 


240      THE   BOOK   OF  EEVELATION 

took  place  under  somewhat  mysterious  circum- 
stances, and  shortly  afterwards  the  rumour 
became  widely  prevalent  that  he  was  not  really 
dead,  but  had  escaped,  and  was  in  the  East 
biding  his  time,  in  order  to  return  and  recover 
his  throne.  The  story  remained  current  until  the 
end  of  the  century,  and  when  it  was  no  longer 
probable  that  Nero  was  alive,  it  took  the  form 
of  an  expectation  that  he  would  return  from  the 
dead  to  wreak  vengeance  on  his  enemies. 

It  is  Nero,  then,  who  is  represented  by  **  the 
wounded  head,"  and  though  the  monster  stands 
in  the  first  place  for  the  Imperial  power,  yet  as 
it  was  in  Nero  that  this  power  had  specially 
concentrated  itself  against  the  Christians,  he  is 
represented  by  the  monster  itself.  It  was  he 
who  had  made  Eome  "  drunken  with  the  blood 
of  the  martyrs."  The  language  of  St.  Augustine 
shows  how  such  a  representation  of  his  character 
was  justified.  **  It  was  Nero  Caesar  who  was  the 
first  to  reach  the  summit,  and,  as  it  were,  the 
citadel,  of  this  vice ;  for  so  great  was  his  licen- 
tiousness that  one  would  have  thought  there  was 
nothing  manly  to  be  dreaded  in  him :  and  such 
his  cruelty,  that,  had  not  the  contrary  been 
known,  no  one  would  have  thought  there  was 
anything  effeminate  in  his  character."  *  It  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  how  to  John,  Nero 
^=  Augustine  :  De  Civitate,  v.  19. 


CHAPTEK  XIII.  241 

seemed  to  gather  up  into  himself  all  the  evil 
personahty  of  the  empire  in  its  relation  to  the 
Church,  and  so  was  capable  of  being  symbolised 
by  the  monster  itself.  And  at  the  end  of  this 
chapter  the  Apostle  gives  as  "  the  number  of  the 
beast,"  a  number  which  half  conceals  and  half 
reveals  the  name  of  Nero. 

The  possibility  of  a  number  standing  for  a 
name  depends,  of  course,  on  the  fact  that  both 
in  Hebrew  and  in  Greek  the  letters  of  the 
alphabet  did  duty  also  as  numerals,  so  that 
every  name,  and,  indeed,  every  word,  had  a 
certain  numerical  value  arrived  at  by  adding 
together  the  values  of  the  letters  of  which  it  was 
composed.  As  to  this  particular  number,  666, 
there  are  few  names  of  persons  prominent  in 
history  which  cannot,  by  some  means  or  other, 
be  made  to  yield  that  as  the  total  value  of  their 
component  letters.  Mohammed,  Luther,  and 
Napoleon  have  all  been  seriously  suggested. 
There  are,  however,  only  two  names  which 
deserve  consideration.  One  is  Lateinos,  the 
Greek  form  of  Latinus,  which  might  conceivably 
describe  the  Eoman  Emperor  or  race.  But  there 
is  no  actual  case  of  the  word  occurring  in  this 
form,  and  even  if  there  were,  it  would  be  a 
curious  designation  to  choose  for  either  the 
Eoman  race  or  the  Koman  Emperor.  The  most 
probable  explanation  is  that  which  finds  in  the 
17 


242      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

mystic  number  the  name  of  "  Nero  Caesar  "  spelt 
in  Hebrew  letters.  The  choice  of  the  Hebrew 
form  is  probably  due  to  the  writer's  desire  to  fit 
this  name  to  a  number  which  was  already  con- 
nected with  some  manifestation  of  Antichrist. 
Contemporary  Christian  (?)  speculation  had  dis- 
covered that  the  numerical  value  of  the  name 
"Jesus"  was  888,  and  666  was  a  number 
symbolically  fitted  to  represent  Antichrist. 

The  first  monster,  therefore,  represents  the 
Imperial  Power  of  Kome,  incarnate  in  the  persons 
of  the  successive  emperors,  but  specially  in  Nero, 
and  in  the  case  of  seven  of  them  at  least,  actually 
demanding  worship  from  their  subjects  as  being 
gods  on  earth ;  and  the  dread  was  that,  if  Nero 
returned  to  the  throne,  the  pressure  and  the 
recklessness  of  this  demand  would  be  indefinitely 
increased.  In  a  word,  the  shape  taken  by  the 
monstrous  power  of  evil  when  this  book  was 
written  was  that  hideous  travesty  of  religion, 
Emperor- worship,  to  which  we  have  already 
found  frequent  allusion  in  the  letters  to  the  seven 
Churches.  Other  forms  of  heathenism  and  idolatry 
might  be  avoided  by  the  Christians  at  the  cost 
only  of  social  ostracism  and  petty  persecution; 
but  this,  the  public  acknowledgment  of  the  Em- 
peror as  God,  was  enforced  as  the  test  of  loyalty 
and  good  citizenship.  It  was  the  refusal  of  the 
Christians   to  conform  to  this  imperial  worship 


CHAPTER  XIII.  243 

that  "  formed  the  test  by  which  they  could  be 
detected,  and  the  reason  why  they  were  out- 
lawed; their  refusal  was  interpreted  as  a  proof 
of  disloyalty  and  treason,  for  it  was  a  refusal  to 
acquiesce  in,  and  be  members  of,  the  imperial 
unity."  Of  this  we  find  striking  evidence,  dating 
from  early  in  the  second  century,  in  the  letter  of 
Pliny  to  the  Emperor  Trajan,  where  we  read: 
"As  for  those  who  said  they  neither  were  nor 
ever  had  been  Christians,  I  thought  it  right  to 
let  them  go,  since  they  recited  a  prayer  to  the 
gods  at  my  dictation,  made  supplication  with 
incense  and  wine  to  your  statue,  which  I  had 
ordered  to  be  brought  into  court  for  the  purpose 
together  with  the  images  of  the  gods,  and,  more- 
over, cursed  Christ,  not  one  of  which  things  (so 
it  is  said)  those  who  are  really  Christians  can  be 
made  to  do."  No !  for  in  their  eyes  to  "  make 
supplication  with  incense  and  wine  to  the  statue  " 
of  a  man  was  utter  blasphemy  and  idolatry,  and 
the  image  of  the  Emperor  set  up  in  a  temple  for 
the  worship  of  men  was  ''the  Abomination  of 
Desolation  standing  where  it  ought  not." 

The  power  of  the  first  monster  is  supported 
and  enforced  upon  men  by  the  second  monster. 
This  the  Apostle  sees  "  coming  up  from  the 
land  " ;  it  was  indigenous  in  Asia.  "  He  maketh 
the  earth  and  them  that  dwell  therein  to  worship 
the  first  beast."     It  is  possible  that  as  the  first 


244      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

monster  stands  for  the  Imperial  Power  in  its 
blasphemous  claim  to  be  worshipped,  so  the 
second  may  stand  for  the  Provincial  Govern- 
ment, whose  business  it  would  be,  especially  in 
Asia,  to  foster  and  enforce  this  worship  in  every 
possible  way.  The  sentence,  "  He  executeth  all 
the  authority  of  the  first  beast  in  his  sight,"  may 
be  thought  to  support  this.  And  this  is  the 
view  taken  by  Professor  Kamsay,  who  sees  in  the 
two  horns  of  this  monster  a  reference  to  the 
"  double  aspect  of  civil  and  religious  adminis- 
tration." ''The  provincial  administration  or- 
ganised the  State  religion  of  the  emperors. 
The  imperial  regulation  that  all  loyal  subjects 
must  conform  to  the  State  religion  and  take 
part  in  the  imperial  ritual,  was  carried  out 
according  to  the  regulations  framed  by  the 
Commune,  which  arranged  the  ritual,  superin- 
tended and  directed  its  performance,  ordered  the 
building  of  temples  and  the  erection  of  statues, 
fixed  the  holidays,  and  so  on."  * 

The  present  writer  is  still  inclined  to  think 
that  the  second  monster  stands  for  the  priests 
of  the  imperial  cult,  attached  to  the  imperial 
temples.  The  ''horns  like  a  lamb"  by  which  it 
is  distinguished  would  then  be  an  allusion  to 
the  mitred  head-dress  of  these  priests,  and 
verses  13-15  would  receive  a  natural  interpreta- 
'■''  Eamsay,  loc.  oit.,  p.  97. 


*      CHAPTEK  XIII.  245 

tion  adequate  to  the  emphatic  position  which 
they  occupy.  "  He  doeth  great  signs,  that  he 
should  even  make  fire  to  come  down  out  of  heaven 
upon  the  earth  in  the  sight  of  men.  And  it 
was  given  unto  him  to  give  breath  unto  it, 
even  to  the  image  of  the  beast,  that  the  image 
of  the  beast  should  both  speak,  and  cause  that 
as  many  as  should  not  worship  the  image  of  the 
beast  should  be  killed."  The  allusion  is  doubt- 
less to  pretended  miracles  and  temple  trickery  by 
which  these  priests  imposed  upon  the  credulity 
of  the  people.  The  use  of  such  means  was  only 
too  common  in  the  pagan  religions  of  the  time, 
although  there  is  no  other  evidence  that  it  was 
employed  to  promote  the  imperial  worship. 
Magicians  were  held  in  high  esteem,  such  as 
Simon  the  magician  in  Cyprus,  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  Apelles  of  Ascalon  at  the  court  of  Cali- 
gula; and  they  maintained  their  reputation  by 
the  performance  of  pretended  miracles  of  a 
similar  kind.  Of  Simon  it  was  related  that  he 
caused  statues  to  move  and  lifeless  things  to  come 
aHve.  The  fact  that  in  xvi.  13  the  "  false 
prophet "  appears  to  be  a  synonym  for  the 
second  beast,  confirms  this  explanation.  It  re- 
presents the  organised  priesthood  of  the  imperial 
cult,  who  used  force  and  persuasion  and  "magic  " 
besides  in  order  to  "make  the  earth  and  them 
that  dwell  therein  worship  the  first  beast." 


246      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

As  a  means  of  distinguishing  the  worshippers 
of  the  Emperor  from  those  who  refused  to  con- 
form, it  is  here  suggested  that  these  priests  had 
secured,  or  would  proceed  to  secure,  the  actual 
branding  of  all  such  with  a  "  mark  "  upon  the 
hand  or  the  forehead.  ''He  causeth  all,  the 
small  and  the  great,  and  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
and  the  free  and  the  bond,  that  there  be  given 
them  a  mark  on  their  right  hand  or  upon  their 
forehead."  It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  the 
many  guesses  that  have  been  made  as  to  the 
meaning  of  this  '*  mark  of  the  beast."  The 
most  hopeful  have  been  those  which  connect 
it  with  the  branding  of  slaves  or  soldiers,  or  the 
tattooing  of  caste-marks  or  emblems  of  a  god. 
The  mark  evidently  contains  or  consists  in  the 
name  or  the  number  of  the  beast,  has  some 
special  reference  to  the  Emperor  who  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  beast,  and  is  capable  of  being 
appealed  to  in  connection  with  buying  and 
selling.  ''  Marks,"  literally  "  charagmata,"  which 
fulfil  these  conditions  have  recently  been  dis- 
covered, impressed  by  seals  upon  papyrus  docu- 
ments found  in  Egypt.  A  representation  of  one 
of  them  will  be  found  in  Deissmann's  Bible 
Studies*  These  seals  were  inscribed  with  the 
name  of  the  reigning  Emperor  and  with  the  year 
of  his  reign ;  some  of  them  probably  contained 
*  See  Deissmann,  BihU  Studies,  p.  241  ft, 


CHAPTER  XIII.  247 

his  effigy ;  and  they  were  used  on  documents  con- 
nected with  buying  and  selling.  It  cannot  be 
said  that  the  use  of  these  seals  on  legal  docu- 
ments wholly  explains  the  language  of  this 
passage ;  it  does  not  account  for  the  receiving 
of  the  mark  upon  the  hand  or  the  forehead.  But 
it  may  well  have  provided  the  basis  for  such  a 
prophetic  anticipation.  Or,  if  the  use  of  such 
a  seal  were  made  imperative  in  buying  and 
selling  (and  its  use  might  be  arbitrarily  ex- 
tended as  a  means  of  persecution),  and  if  the 
use  of  it  were  felt  by  the  Christians  to  be  a 
tacit  acknowledgment  of  Emperor-idolatry,  it  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  how  those  who  made 
use  of  it  in  trade  might  be  said  to  have  accepted 
the  mark  of  the  beast,  and  how  those  who  re- 
fused might  find  it  impossible  to  buy  or  sell. 
And  however  the  mark  itself  is  to  be  explained, 
it  is  clear  that  it  was  used,  or  to  be  used,  in  con- 
nection with  "  some  unknown,  but  not  in  itself 
improbable,  attempt,  either  through  official  regu- 
lation or  informal  '  boycott '  to  injure  the  Asian 
Christians  by  preventing  dealings  with  traders 
and  shopkeepers  who  had  not  proved  their  loyalty 
to  the  Emperor."  * 

This,   then,  is  the  meaning  of  this  twofold 
vision.      It    represents    in    symbolic    but    most 

*  On  the  whole  question  of  the  mark  and  the  mode  of  it, 
see  Ramsay,  loc.  cif.,  p.  105,  if. 


248      THE   BOOK  OF   REVELATION 

impressive  form  the  grim  reality  with  which 
the  Christians  of  the  period,  and  especially  those 
in  Asia,  were  engaged,  in  a  conflict  which  must 
be  fatal  to  one  or  to  the  other ;  and  the  equally 
real  force  of  a  venal  priesthood  which  employed 
the  arts  of  deception  and  tyranny  in  order  to 
strengthen  the  authority  of  Emperor- worship. 
Neither  is  it  difficult  to  see  how  both  the  one 
symbol  and  the  other  are  typical  of  other  forms 
in  which  the  same  spirit  has  taken  shape. 
Emperor-worship  was  perhaps  the  grossest  and 
most  flagrant  case  of  the  one;  but  it  is  not  by 
any  means  the  only  occasion  in  history  in  which 
men  have  sought  to  prostitute  the  religious 
instinct  to  the  service  of  political  ambition, 
when  the  State  or  the  Church  has  ventured  to 
claim  for  itself  the  authority,  and  in  some  sense 
even  the  worship,  which  belong  to  God  alone. 
And  those  who  see  in  the  Papacy  of  the  Middle 
Ages  one  of  the  incarnations  of  this  spirit,  have 
a  great  deal  to  say  for  their  opinion.  When 
the  Pope  declared  that  he  was  the  "Vicar  of 
God  "  upon  earth,  and  claimed  to  govern  men's 
consciences,  opinions,  and  conduct  by  a  fiat  as 
absolute  as  if  it  were  divine;  when  the  Papacy 
set  up  false  forms  of  worship  and  idolatrous 
images  throughout  Europe,  and  persecuted  to 
the  death  those  who  felt  such  things  to  be 
blasphemous   and   derogatory  to  the  honour   of 


CHAPTEK  XIII.  249 

God — the  parallel  to  what  is  here  described  is 
too  close  to  be  denied.  And  such  a  power 
asserting  itself  over  against  God  has  never  been 
without  its  willing  instruments,  its  venal  servants, 
who  engineer  the  great  deception  and  enforce 
the  human  tyranny.  And  again  the  parallel  is 
too  clear  to  be  overlooked  between  the  priest- 
hood which  served  and  enforced  Caesar-worship 
in  Asia  Minor,  and  the  priesthood  which  in  the 
Middle  Ages  served  the  Papacy,  inventing  or 
adopting  many  a  trick  by  which  the  superstitious 
were  beguiled  into  a  false  religion — the  winking 
virgins,  the  blood-stained  hosts,  the  cottage 
carried  through  the  air,  the  blood  liquefying  once 
a  year,  and  so  forth — all  designed  and  con- 
tributing to  establish  the  authority  of  a  system 
which  confuses  religion  and  politics.  And  it  is 
not  a  little  strange  that  the  very  land  where 
this  Caesar-worship  and  this  Caesar-priesthood 
flourished,  proves  to  be  the  original  home  of 
one  at  least  of  these  false  worships,  which  Kome 
has  engrafted  on  the  Christian  faith,  the  worship 
of  the  Virgin  Mary. 

But  we  must  not  rest  satisfied  with  recognising 
these  forms  alone  as  incarnations  of  the  same  evil 
spirit  which  was  manifested  in  these  monsters; 
there  are  others  which  are  more  nearly  akin  to  our 
own  modes  of  thought,  for  which  we  ourselves 
have  more  responsibility.      From  time  to  time 


250      THE  BOOK  OF   EEVELATION 

the  "  Spirit  of  the  Age,"  as  it  is  called,  is  one 
hostile  to  God,  to  Christ,  and  to  righteousness, 
and  it  is  found  taking  shape  in  some  system  of 
thought,  some  convention  of  opinion,  or  some 
tyranny  of  social  custom.  In  our  day  it  is 
materialism  in  its  many  forms,  in  reckless  pursuit 
of  pleasure,  in  scornful  contempt  of  duty,  in 
hideous  denial  of  all  that  is  spiritual  in  man. 
This  is  the  idol  set  up  for  men  to  worship ; 
and  those  who  refuse  or  hesitate  are  made  to 
suffer  in  their  comfort  and  opportunities,  if  not 
in  their  reputation  and  person.  Crowds  of 
thoughtless  or  unscrupulous  men  press  into  the 
service  of  the  idol's  priesthood.  By  speech  and 
pen,  in  books  and  journals,  and  in  less  open 
ways,  they  seek  to  establish  the  authority  of 
the  evil  thing.  They  pursue  with  scorn  and 
hatred  those  who  refuse  to  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship the  golden  image.  They  employ  all  the 
tricks  of  language  and  sophistical  argument  to 
inveigle  even  the  servants  of  God  into  disloyalty 
to  Him  and  His  cause.  And  with  some  they 
succeed.  On  all  the  pressure  is  very  great  to 
"  worship  the  beast." 

Now,  what  has  this  book  to  say  regarding 
these  things?  First,  "here  is  the  patience  and 
faith  of  the  saints."  God  calls  upon  His  people 
to  endure  the  tyranny,  if  need  be,  of  public 
opinion  hostile  to  His  cause ;  the  scorn,  if  need 


CHAPTEK  XIII.  251 

be,  of  many  who  seem  to  be  leaders  of  our  time ; 
the  loss,  it  may  be,  which  is  involved  in  loyalty 
to  Christ  and  righteousness.  Here  is  the  faith 
of  the  saints,  the  evidence  of  their  conviction 
that  the  Lord  reigneth,  that  "there  is  a  city 
bright,  whose  gates  are  closed  to  sin,"  that  to 
be  right  with  God  is  better  than  to  enjoy  the 
favour  of  men.  And  here  is  the  patience  of  the 
saints,  their  opportunity  of  steady  endurance,  of 
manifesting  and  developing  that  quality  by  which 
they  ''win  their  souls." 

And,  secondly,  the  book  teaches,  with  vivid 
reiteration,  that  all  these  things  are  marked  for 
destruction,  total  and  final.  In  a  later  vision 
the  prophet  sees  how  "  the  beast  was  taken,  and 
with  him  the  false  prophet  that  wrought  signs 
in  his  sight  wherewith  he  deceived  them  that 
received  the  mark  of  the  beast ;  and  they  twain 
were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire." 

"  The  wages  of  sin  is  death  ";  and  the  systems 
of  falsehood  and  iniquity,  the  most  imposing 
empires  of  worldliness,  carry  in  them  the  seeds 
of  sure  destruction,  a  destruction  which  involves 
those  who  have  wilfully  surrendered  themselves 
to  be  their  servants.  The  wages  of  sin  is  death, 
but  "  the  gift  of  God  is  eternal  life." 


ANTICIPATOKY  VISIONS  OF   THE 
JUDGMENT 

Eev.  xiv. 

This  chapter  is  apt  to  give  much  perplexity  to 
the  attentive  reader,  and  it  certainly  raises  in- 
superable difficulties  in  the  V7ay  of  those  who 
look  for  one  sequence  of  events  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  end  of  the  Eevelation,  or  at  any  rate 
from  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  chapter.  That 
there  is  no  such  sequence  v^e  have  already  found 
reason  to  think ;  what  sequences  there  may  be  are 
brief  and  self-contained;  their  relation  to  one 
another  is  not  consecutive,  but  is  governed  and 
explained  by  the  vision-origin  and  vision-character 
of  the  whole,  by  the  fact  that  the  Apostle  is 
describing  things  which  he  has  seen  as  in  a 
picture.*  In  this  chapter  we  have  a  series  of 
brief  paragraphs,  describing  different  episodes  in 
the  vision  of  the  End.  When  we  reach  its  close, 
it  appears  once  more  as  if  there  were  nothing 
more  to  follow,  except  the  winding-up  of  judg- 

'''  See  above,  p.  184  f. 


CHAPTEE  XIV.  253 

ment.  We  have  seen  the  Lamb  upon  Mount 
Zion  attended  by  a  great  company  of  the  re- 
deemed ;  we  have  heard  four  angels  each  making 
a  proclamation  which  seems  to  be  final ;  we  have 
seen  "one  like  unto  the  Son  of  man"  coming 
on  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  casting  his  sickle 
to  the  earth  for  the  harvest  of  Judgment ;  we 
have  seen  even  the  treading  of  "the  wine-press 
of  the  wrath  of  God."  And  yet  when  we  pass 
on  to  the  next  chapters,  we  are  to  find  the  long 
series  of  judgments  connected  with  the  pouring 
of  the  bowls,  a  vision  of  Babylon  still  standing, 
and  the  going  forth  of  Christ  to  the  final  conflict 
and  victory. 

The  verse  which  from  one  point  of  view  raises 
the  difficulty  in  the  most  acute  form,  really  points 
out  the  true  explanation.  "And  another,  a  second 
angel,  followed,  saying.  Fallen,  fallen  is  Babylon 
the  great,  which  hath  made  all  nations  to  drink 
of  the  wine  of  the  wrath  of  her  fornication " 
(verse  8).  Solemn  proclamation  is  made  that 
Rome,  the  incarnation  of  the  spirit  of  Babylon, 
has  fallen  from  her  high  place.  Nevertheless, 
in  the  seventeenth  chapter,  we  come  to  a  vision 
of  the  same  city  seated  on  the  seven  hills,  and 
in  all  her  power  and  splendour;  and  in  the 
eighteenth  chapter,  after  this  proclamation  has 
been  repeated,  we  have  the  Triumph-song  over 
Babylon  as  newly  fallen.     Only  one  explanation 


254     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

is  possible.  This  is  one  of  the  sahent  features 
in  the  great  vision-picture  of  the  future  which 
the  Apostle  has  seen,  and  in  this  chapter  he  takes, 
as  it  were,  a  comprehensive  sweep,  gathering 
up  and  recording  this  and  others  of  the  salient 
points,  some  of  which  he  afterwards  returns  to 
describe  in  fulness  of  detail.  It  is  analogous  to 
the  process  which  Browning  saw  in  the  history 
of  the  Gospels.  There,  ''what  first  were  guessed 
as  points,  are  now  seen  stars."  Here,  the  points 
are  seen  and  registered,  which  are  afterwards 
to  be  expanded  and  described  on  a  larger  scale. 

Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  escape  the  necessity 
that  would  otherwise  be  felt  of  iStting  these 
visions  into  a  consecutive  scheme.  The  contents 
of  some  of  them  will  be  found  to  recur;  others 
do  not  present  themselves  again;  they  all  form 
part  of  the  vision  of  the  End.  The  first  of  these, 
in  which  we  see  *'  the  Lamb  standing  on  the 
Mount  Zion,  and  with  him  a  hundred  and  forty 
and  four  thousand,  bearing  his  name,  and  the 
name  of  his  Father,  upon  their  foreheads," 
probably  owes  its  place  here  to  that  principle  of 
contrast  which  is  so  effective  in  the  construction 
of  the  Apocalypse.  The  previous  chapter  has 
contained  a  terrible  picture  of  the  forces  which 
were  arrayed  against  the  Church  of  Christ,  the 
first  monster  and  the  second  monster,  and  behind 
them  both  the  dragon.     The  Church  had  already 


CHAPTEK  XIV.  255 

suffered  for  her  loyalty  to  the  testimony  of  Jesus ; 
but  it  was  part  of  the  Apostle's  message  that 
the  pressure  and  persecution  were  to  become 
yet  more  severe.  *'No  man  should  be  able  to 
buy  or  to  sell,  save  he  that  hath  the  mark,  even 
the  name  of  the  beast,  or  the  number  of  his 
name."  If  the  sword  and  the  Hon  failed  to  drive 
the  Christian  into  dishonour,  the  simple  method 
of  starvation  would  be  tried :  and  so  great  would 
be  the  misery  that  "  all  that  dwell  on  the  earth 
shall  worship  the  beast,  every  one  whose  name 
hath  not  been  written  in  the  book  of  life  of  the 
Lamb  "  (xiii.  8). 

To  this  picture  of  the  impending  tribulation 
so  dark  and  menacing,  the  Apostle  sets  in  con- 
trast that  portion  of  his  vision  in  which  the 
peace  and  security  of  the  redeemed  are  displayed. 
Not  all  of  the  redeemed  are  here  thought  of 
or  described,  but  a  special  number  and  a  special 
class.  The  identity  of  the  number  here  with 
the  number  of  ''the  sealed"  in  the  first  half 
of  chapter  vii.  has  led  to  attempts  being  made 
to  explain  both  passages  as  concerned  with  the 
same  persons  ;  hut  the  recognition  of  the  former 
passage  as  one  of  the  writer's  quotations  from 
Jewish  literature  removes  the  last  reason  for 
pressing  this  identity.  The  144,000  here  belong 
to  the  Apostle's  own  circle  of  thought ;  they 
are  not  all  the  redeemed,  for  these  are  "  a  multi- 


256      THE  BOOK  OF   REVELATION 

tude  whom  no  man  can  number "  ;  neither  is 
the  number  of  them  to  be  taken  Hterally;  it 
expresses  a  body  of  men  which  is  large,  complete, 
and  compact.  They  belong  to  a  special  class 
in  the  Church,  those  who  are  "  virgins,"  and 
have  lived  a  life  of  ascetic  chastity.  These 
clauses  are  certainly  to  be  taken  in  their  literal 
sense,  and  as  representing  a  high  estimate  of 
Christian  asceticism.  The  reason  for  such  an 
estimate  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  reaction 
against  the  prevailing  corruption  of  heathenism, 
and,  within  the  Church,  in  the  desire  to  find 
a  counterpoise  to  the  false  teaching,  the  "doctrine 
of  Balaam,"  which  had  invaded  several  of  the 
churches.  This  company  is  seen  gathered  round 
the  Lamb  on  Mount  Zion.  Whether  this  is  to 
be  thought  of  as  the  earthly  or  the  heavenly 
Jerusalem  is  not  easy  to  decide.  Probably  it 
is  the  former,  and  the  underlying  idea  is  that 
those  who  have  made  their  breach  with  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  world  complete,  walk  with  Christ  in 
perfect  security,  whatever  tribulation  or  perse- 
cution may  befall.  They  "  follow  the  Lamb 
whithersoever  he  goeth."  If  we  are  to  think 
of  them  as  not  yet  glorified  through  death,  they 
are  those  who  are  privileged,  while  yet  on  earth, 
to  '*  dwell  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High." 
And  as  they  have  refused  to  receive  upon  their 
foreheads  the  mark  of  the  beast,  they  bear  the 


CHAPTEK  XIV.  257 

name   of  Christ  and  the  name  of  the  Father 
conspicuously  upon  them. 

Asceticism,  Hke  ''having  all  things  in  common," 
and  some  other  things  in  the  early  Church,  may 
have  had   its  place   as   a  temporary   expedient, 
a  testimony  which  even  a  blind  world  could  not 
ignore,  to  the  Christian  standard  of  self-control. 
But  it  forms  no  part  of  the  permanent  Christian 
ideal.     Against  the  particular  form  of  it  referred 
to  here   St.  Paul  had  once   and   again   to  raise 
a  warning  voice :  *   and  even  in  this  book  the 
recognition   and   consecration   of    the   marriage- 
state  is    to    be    inferred   from   the    imagery  of 
chaps,  xxi.  and  xxii.     But  there  is  a  deep  truth 
expressed  through  the  vision.     Beneath  a  form 
which    had  only   a   temporary  justification,   we 
see  the  determination  to  make  complete  surrender 
to  Christ,  and  to  keep  oneself  '*  unspotted  from 
the  world "  at  all  costs.     And  this  is   still   the 
secret   of  facing    a    hostile   world,   of    enduring 
persecution   and   temptation,   and   all   the    time 
walking  with  Christ   upon   the   Mount  of   God. 
And    they  who   thus   refuse   the   badge   of    the 
world's  favour  do  receive  the  great  names  upon 
their  hearts,  the  acknowledgment  by  God,   first 
secret  and  then  manifest  to   all,  that   they  are 
His.     It  is  they  also  who  can  learn  **  the  new 
song"  which  is  sung  **  before  the  throne."     Even 
*  1  Tim.  iv.  3,  c/.  v.  14 ;  1  Cor.  vii.  9,  28. 
18 


258      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

as  they  walk  the  dusty  ways  of  the  world,  and 
cannot  but  hear  its  voices  of  contempt  or  menace, 
the  music  of  this  song  steals  down  into  their 
hearts,  and  they  are  at  peace. 

Of  the  four  proclamations  which  follow  (verses 
6  to  13),  the  first  three,  each  of  which  is  made  by 
an  angel,  announce  the  imminence  or  the  cer- 
tainty of  judgment,  the  fourth  pronounces  the 
blessedness  of  those  who  from  the  moment  that 
judgment  begins,  "  die  in  the  Lord."  What  is 
meant  by  the  phrase  "  an  eternal  gospel,"  is 
plain  from  the  account  of  the  angel's  message  in 
verse  7.  It  is  not  '*  the  Gospel"  in  the  sense 
which  has  become  technical  in  the  Church,  but  a 
proclamation  of  the  nearness  of  judgment,  and 
a  summons  to  fear  and  worship  God.  The  use 
of  the  word  ''gospel"  and  the  burden  of  the 
message  are  closely  parallel  to  the  passage  at  the 
beginning  of  St.  Mark,  describing  the  opening  of 
our  Lord's  ministry.*  Jesus  came  into  Galilee 
"  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  saying,  Kepent  ye,  and  believe  in  the  gospel." 
In  both  cases  the  near  approach  of  the  Divine 
event  was  the  "  good  news " ;  and  those  who 
received  it  as  such  would  testify  thereto  by 
showing  repentance  and  the  fear  of  God,  and  wor- 
shipping Him  in  faith,  f  To  this  general  announce- 
ment that  "  the  hour  of  judgment  is  come,"  there 
*  Mark  i.  14,  15.  f  C/.  also  Acts  xiv.  15. 


CHAPTEE  XIV.  259 

succeed  two  proclamations  of  judgment  in  par- 
ticular cases.  The  first,  referred  to  above, 
announces  that  "  Babylon  is  fallen  "  ;  the  second 
pronounces  the  doom  of  those  who  worship  the 
beast  and  receive  his  mark  upon  their  forehead. 
No  man  can  escape  from  bearing  either  *'  the  mark 
of  the  beast,"  or  '^  the  name  of  Christ  and  the 
name  of  his  Father."  And  as  the  blessedness  of 
the  latter  is  great  and  manifest,  so  also  is  the 
penalty  to  be  borne  by  the  former,  in  the  day 
when  the  judgment  is  set.  The  imagery  in 
which  this  penalty  is  described  is  almost  wholly 
derived  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  ultimately 
from  the  manner  of  destruction  which  fell  upon 
Sodom,  or  from  the  daily  spectacle,  seen  from 
Jerusalem,  of  the  destruction  of  all  manner  of 
corrupt  things  in  the  valley  of  Tophet.*  But 
the  Apocalypse  itself  supplies  the  parallel  to  one 
feature  in  the  description  ("  They  have  no  rest 
day  and  night"),  and  the  contrast  is  a  poignant 
one  :  ''  They  have  no  rest  day  and  night,  saying. 
Holy,  holy,  holy,  is  the  Lord"  (iv.  8).  Thus, 
"  immediately  before  the  great  decisive  struggle 
the  writer  holds  up  before  the  eyes  of  the  faithful 
the  fate  of  every  one  who  succumbs  in  the  conflict 
with  the  beast.  The  Apocalypse  is  a  declaration 
of  war  against  the  worship  of  the  Caesars " 
(Bousset).  The  proclamation  closes  with  the 
-  Cf.  Is.  XXX.  33  ;  xxxiv.  8-10 :  Deut.  xxix.  23 :  Jobxviii.  15. 


260     THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION 

arresting  words,  "  Here  is  the  patience  of  the 
saints,  they  that  keep  the  commandments  of  God 
and  the  faith  of  Jesus."  Here  and  now  is  the 
patience,  the  endurance,  of  the  saints  to  approve 
itself.  The  moment  has  arrived  when  the 
prophecy  is  about  to  pass  into  reaHsation.  He 
whose  name  is  not  written  in  the  Lamb's  book 
of  Hfe  will  worship  the  beast.  Let  men  make 
their  choice.  The  opportunity  of  choice  is  fast 
running  out.  And  let  those  who  have  chosen 
Christ,  and  by  Him  been  chosen,  not  be  surprised 
when  they  are  laid  hold  of  by  the  civil  power. 
Neither  let  them  resist.  '*  If  any  man  is  for 
captivity,  into  captivity  he  goeth  :  if  any  man 
killeth  with  the  sword,  with  the  sword  must  he 
be  killed "  (xiii.  10).  ''That  is  to  say,  let  there 
be  no  armed,  fruitless,  and  unbelieving  resistance, 
but  submission.  Herein  shall  show  itself  the 
faith  and  endurance  of  the  saints.  These  words 
would  make  plain  to  the  reader,  who  was  not  yet 
aware  of  it,  what  terrible  actuality  there  was  for 
him  in  this  prophecy.  It  is  no  question  of  things 
belonging  to  later  times  :  to-morrow  or  to-day 
may  see  the  test  applied  to  thee."  * 

The  fourth    proclamation    (v.   13)    stands   in 

closest    relation   with    that   which   precedes    it. 

"  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  from  now  onwards 

die    in    the    Lord."      Whatever    more    genera 

^'  Jobanues  Weiss,  loc,  cit.,  p.  20, 


CHAPTEE  XIV.  261 

significance  we  may  now  attach  to  these  words, 
they  have  a  special  meaning  for  those  to  whom 
they  were  first  addressed.  The  alternative  to 
worshipping  the  beast  would,  in  many  cases  at 
least,  be  death ;  the  Apostle  does  not  ignore  that ; 
rather  is  he  anxious  to  make  it  plain.  But  to  die 
for  Christ's  sake  and  in  Christ  would  "from 
henceforth,"  from  the  point  when  the  final 
struggle  has  begun,  have  a  new^  blessedness 
attached  to  it.  Up  to  this  point,  the  souls  even 
of  the  martyrs  beneath  the  altar  of  God  are 
crying  ''with  a  great  voice,"  saying.  How  long? 
(vi.  10) ;  and  as  they  have  been  exhorted  to  wait 
''  yet  for  a  httle  time,  until  their  fellow-servants 
also  w^hich  should  be  killed,  should  be  fulfilled" 
(vi.  11),  so  for  their  fellow-servants  then  was 
this  special  privilege  that  the  bliss  which  awaited 
them  would  be  at  once  complete.*  "  The  har- 
vest of  the  earth  is  about  to  be  reaped ;  the 
vintage  of  the  earth  is  about  to  be  gathered.  At 
this  time  it  is  that  the  complete  blessedness  of 
the  holy  dead  commences :  when  the  garner  is 
filled,  and  the  chaff  cast  out.  And  that  not 
because  of  their  deliverance  from  any  purgatorial 
fires,    but    because  of    the    completion  of    this 

■^  That  these  two  classes  of  martyrs  were  clearly  differ- 
entiated by  the  writer,  is  plain  from  the  care  with  which  he 
specifies  both  in  xx.  4  :  *'  them  that  had  been  beheaded  for 
the  testimony  of  Jesus,"  and  "  such  as  worshipped  not  the 
beast." 


262      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

number  of  their  brethren,  and  the  full  capacities 
of  bliss  brought  in  by  the  resurrection  "  (Alford). 
Such  a  representation  of  the  condition  of  the 
blessed  dead  is  inevitable  so  long  as  we  continue 
to  think  of  them  under  the  conditions  of  time. 
They  cannot  but  watch  with  eager,  anxious 
interest  the  struggle  which  still  goes  on  upon 
earth ;  if  we  are  to  run  our  race  conscious  of  that 
"  great  cloud  of  witnesses,"  we  cannot  think  of 
them  as  indifferent  to  the  issue.  And  even  the 
perfect  certainty  which  they  may  have  that  the 
victory  will  lie  with  their  Lord  and  with  His 
Church,  may  not  cover  the  question.  Who  will 
stand,  and  who  will  fall  ?  It  is  only  when  we 
realise  the  timelessness  of  a  spiritual  existence 
that  we  can  think  of  their  bliss  as  complete 
"  without  us  "  (Heb.  xi.  40),  even  while  the  struggle 
is  going  on  below,  and  the  issue  of  individual 
human  choice  still  hangs  in  the  balance. 

These  proclamations  fitly  issue  in  the  descrip- 
tions of  the  Judgment  which  follow,  descriptions 
which  are  brief  and  anticipatory,  as  explained 
above.  *'  And  I  saw,  and  behold,  a  white  cloud  ; 
and  on  the  cloud  one  sitting  like  unto  the  Son  of 
man."  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  this  figure 
we  are  to  see  the  Lord  Christ  Himself  returning 
in  glory  to  judge  the  world.  It  is  the  same 
figure  as  that  which  John  saw  at  the  beginning 
of  his  vision  (i.  12),  though  the  attitude  and  attire 


CHAPTEE  XIV.  263 

are  different.  It  was  under  this  description  that 
Jesus  had  chosen  to  present  Himself  to  men  ;  it 
was  in  this  fonn  that  He  had  told  His  disciples 
to  expect  His  final  return:  ** Hereafter,  ye  shall 
see  the  Son  of  man  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven."  John  sees  the  Jesus  whom  he  had 
known  returning  in  more  than  Messianic  glory. 
On  His  head  is  the  diadem  of  royal  majesty,  and 
in  His  hand  ''  a  sharp  sickle."  It  might  give  us 
a  moment's  perplexity  to  find  that  this  majestic 
figure  apparently  waits  for  a  signal  from  an  angel 
ere  He  casts  His  sickle  to  the  earth  ;  and  yet  the 
representation  is  in  consonance  with  our  Lord's 
own  word  :  *'  Of  that  day  and  that  hour,  knoweth 
no  man,  neither  the  Son  of  man,  but  my  Father 
only."  The  angel  of  verse  15  is  the  messenger 
of  the  Father,  who  is  sent  to  tell  the  Son  of  man 
that  '*  the  hour  to  reap  is  come."  "And  he  that 
sat  on  the  cloud  cast  his  sickle  upon  the  earth ; 
and  the  earth  was  reaped."  The  detailed  de- 
scription of  how  the  earth  is  to  be  reaped  is  to  be 
sought  elsewhere  in  the  Eevelation;  what  follows 
the  reaping  is  described  in  xx.  11-15. 

"  The  reapers  are  the  angels " ;  *  but  the 
harvest  is  not  complete  when  the  corn  has  been 
reaped  ;  the  vintage  remains,  and  the  vision  goes 
on  to  describe  how  that  is  gathered  in.  Nothing 
from  which  fruit  can  properly  be  expected  is 
*  Matt.  xiii.  39. 


264     THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

omitted  from  the  harvesting   of   God.     Just   as 
the  description  of  the  earth's  reaping  recalls  the 
imagery  of  our  Lord's  parable  of  the   tares,  so 
that   of  the   "  vintage "  is  coloured  by  reminis- 
cences of  passages  in  the  Old  Testament.    Isaiah's 
great  parable  of  "the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  of 
hosts"   had   made   famihar  the   idea   of  Israel's 
responsibility  to  yield   fruit  for  her  Maker ;  and 
the  gathering  of  the   vintage  had   long  been   a 
symbol  for  the  summons  to   judgment.     In  the 
imagery  of  the  twentieth  verse,  however,  for  which 
there  is  no  parallel  in  the   Old  Testament,  the 
Seer  may  have  been  following  later  developments 
of  the  Jewish  tradition,  in  which  "the  winepress 
of  the  wrath  of  God  "  was  located,  like  the  valley 
of   Hinnom,   "  outside   the   city."      There   is   a 
striking  parallel  to  the  rest   of  the  verse  in  the 
Book  of  Enoch :    **  From  dawn  to  sunset  they 
shall  slay  one  another,  and  the  steed  will  go  up 
to  the  breast  in  the  blood  of  the  sinners,  and  the 
waggon   sink  in  to  all  its  height,  .  .  .  and  the 
Most   High   will  arise  in  that   day,  to  hold  the 
great  judgment   over    all   sinners."      Thus,  the 
details  of  this  vision,  like  much  of  the  book  as  a 
whole,  appear  to  take  their  colouring  from  each 
of  the  three  schools  in  which  the  Apostle  has  been 
a  pupil,   the  prophecies   of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  Jewish  Apocalypse,  and  the  teaching  of  his 
Master  while  on  earth.    But  the  centre  of  the 
vision   is   that  same   Master,  returning  to  com- 


CHAPTER  XIV.  265 

mence,   without   further  delay,  the  harvest  and 
vintage  of  the  earth. 

The  question  has  been  raised  whether  this 
reaping  and  vintage  represent  the  ingathering 
first  of  the  saints,  and  then  of  the  wicked,  or 
whether  both  represent  the  gathering  of  all  men 
alike.  Dean  Alford  answers,  with  considerable 
hesitation,  that  the  harvest  is  the  ingathering  of 
the  saints,  and  the  vintage  the  assembling  of  the 
wicked  for  judgment.  So,  too.  Dr.  Milligan. 
But  the  passage  in  Joel  (iii.  13),  to  which  this  is 
closely  parallel,  makes  both  harvest  and  vintage 
to  be  figures  of  judgment,  in  which  no  such  distinc- 
tion is  drawn  ;  and  Jeremiah  also  (li.  33)  speaks  of 
the  *' harvest"  as  the  time  of  God's  vengeance. 
No  such  distinction  between  vintage  and  harvest 
is  suggested  in  our  text,  and  the  recognition  of 
the  fact  that  this  is  only  an  anticipatory  pre- 
diction of  what  is  afterwards  to  be  more  fully 
disclosed,  makes  it  unnecessary  for  us  to  seek  for 
any  classification  here.  Harvest  and  vintage 
together  represent  the  gathering  of  all  mankind 
before  the  judgment-seat  of  God.  The  separation 
of  the  tares  from  the  wheat  is  not  yet,  but  imme- 
diately to  follow.  The  winepress  is  trodden,  but 
the  marriage-supper  has  still  to  be  described. 
What  the  Apostle  would  fix  our  attention  on 
here  is  the  twofold  fact  of  Christ's  return  as 
Judge,  and  the  certainty  that  "  we  must  all 
appear  before  his  judgment-seat." 


THE   FALL   OF  BABYLON— EOME 
Eev.  xvii.-xix.  10 

The  pouring  of  the  seventh  bowl,  which  is 
recorded  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  chapter, 
brought  to  a  close  the  threefold  vision  of  Judg- 
ment ;  it  is  followed  by  a  great  voice  out  of  the 
Temple,  saying,  "  It  is  done "  ;  and,  however 
we  may  interpret  the  connection  between  the 
Seals,  the  Trumpets,  and  the  Bowls,  we  naturally 
expect  that  after  this  the  end  must  follow  swiftly. 
But  instead  of  the  rapid  winding  up  of  history, 
and  of  the  Book  of  Eevelation,  together,  we  find 
the  book  taking,  as  it  were,  a  new  start,  and  the 
visions  of  judgment  being  further  unrolled  in  a 
new  series  which  occupies  the  five  following 
chapters.  We  have  the  vision  of  the  great  harlot 
and  her  destruction  (xvii.-xix.  10),  the  vision  of 
the  returning  and  victorious  Christ  (xix.  11-xx.), 
and  the  vision  of  the  New  Jerusalem  (xxi.-xxii.  5). 
Before  examining  the  first  of  these  new  visions, 
we  -have  to  consider  the  relation  of  this  new 
and  unexpected  expansion  of  the  book  to  that 
central  part  in  which  the  prediction  of  judg- 

266 


CHAPTER  XVII.-XIX.   10  267 

ment  seems  to  be  already  complete.  This  is 
the  more  important  because  this  relation  is 
not  the  same  as  that  which  connects  the  three 
series  of  the  central  vision  one  with  the  other. 
In  explanation  of  the  strange  phenomenon  that 
whereas  each  of  these  series  brings  us  to  the 
verge  of  the  end,  but  only  to  make  way  for  a 
new  one,  it  has  been  suggested  that  this  is  in 
accordance  with  the  method  of  God  in  history, 
namely,  that  from  time  to  time  judgment  falls 
on  men  and  nations,  judgment  which  seems  to 
be  final  (and  is  final  for  some  age  or  for  some 
individual),  but  the  end  is  not  yet ;  the  world 
begins  again ;  its  life  goes  on  outwardly  as  before. 
There  has  been  what  we  call  a  '*  crisis,"  though 
we  seldom  remember  that  a  crisis  means  a 
*'  judgment,"  a  sifting  and  classifying  of  men,  a 
dismissing  of  some  into  outer  darkness,  a  deter- 
mination of  destiny  by  character.  There  has 
been  a  judgment,  but  its  scope  is  not  universal, 
and  it  is  followed  not  by  the  final  end,  but  by  a 
new  era  of  the  Divine  discipline  of  men  or  of 
a  man. 

But  this  explanation  does  not  apply  to  the 
connection  between  that  central  vision  and  these 
chapters  which  follow  it.  The  germ  of  each  of 
the  later  visions  is  contained  in  what  has  gone 
before ;  they  are  expansions  of  features  in  the 
earlier    description     which     were    only    lightly 


268      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

touched.  We  shall,  in  fact,  find  the  clue  to 
the  connection  of  these  chapters  with  the  fore- 
going in  the  truly  pictorial  character  of  the 
writer's  experience  and  of  his  book.  The  effect 
of  this  will  be  evident  if  we  imagine  one  attempt- 
ing to  describe  any  famous  picture  which  happens 
to  contain  many  figures,  groups,  and  distinct 
though  connected  episodes.  Let  us  suppose  it 
was  Michael  Angelo's  great  picture  in  the  Sistine 
Chapel,  which  is  an  attempt  to  depict  the  Last 
Judgment.  One  look  at  it  is  sufficient  to  create 
a  great  and  complex  impression,  and  to  fix  on 
the  memory  the  chief  masses  of  the  composition. 
You  recognise  what  it  represents;  you  see  the 
great  central  figure  of  the  victorious  Christ 
dominating  the  whole;  you  take  in  the  various 
groups  above,  below,  to  left  and  right ;  you 
understand  that  they  represent  the  contrasted 
fate  of  the  evil  and  the  good  ;  and  you  receive 
a  profound  impression  of  the  awe  and  majesty 
of  the  scene.  And  all  that  at  one  glance.  There 
is  the  contents  of  your  vision,  the  contents  of  the 
picture  as  seen,  but  not  yet  studied.  But  suppose 
the  vision  remains ;  suppose  you  sit  down  before 
the  picture  and  study  it,  examine  all  its  various 
parts,  see  how  they  are  connected,  and  how  they 
severally  contribute  to  the  total  impression.  Then 
go  away  and  try  to  describe  it ;  you  will  find  that 
your  description  is  marked  by  many  of  the  charac- 


CHAPTER  XVII.-XIX.   10  269 

teristics  which  perplex  us  in  the  construction  of 
this  book.  It  will  be  an  attempt  to  describe 
in  a  series  of  paragraphs  what  you  yourself  saw 
at  one  glance,  and  the  overwhelming  impression 
made  by  the  whole  will  be  continually  interfering 
with  the  effort  to  describe  the  parts.  The  eye 
of  memory  may  begin  by  reconstructing  the 
groups  at  the  base  of  the  picture,  the  judgments 
executed  upon  earth ;  but  it  would  suddenly  be 
swept  obliquely  upwards  to  recover  one  of  the 
scenes  in  heaven ;  from  that  it  would  travel 
downwards  again  to  catch  and  record  the  wistful 
longing  of  men  and  women  upon  earth  before 
whose  weary  hope  this  day  is  breaking  with 
great  joy,  and  thence  across  to  a  group  of  proud 
and  self-sufficient  sinners,  under  whose  feet  the 
earth  they  thought  so  solid  is  gaping  to  let  them 
drop  into  the  abyss.  And,  all  the  while,  the 
central  figure  of  the  Judge  would  be  asserting 
its  imperious  power  to  draw  attention  to  itself. 
Such  an  attempt  to  describe  in  words  this  famous 
picture  of  the  Judgment,  if  carried  out  on  any  but 
the  most  mechanical  lines,  would  reveal  many 
instructive  parallels  with  features  in  the  construc- 
tion of  John's  Apocalypse ;  and,  in  particular,  it 
would  throw  light  on  the  way  in  which  not 
infrequently  he  mentions  briefly  some  element 
in  his  vision  of  the  future,  seems  to  have  passed 
from  it,  but,  at  a  later  point  in  the  book,  returns 


270      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

to  the  same  subject,  and  now  describes  it  in  full. 
An  important  illustration  of  this  is  found  in 
connection  with  the  Vision  of  the  New  Jerusalem, 
the  Lamb's  Bride.  The  detailed  description  of 
this  is  found  in  the  twenty-first  chapter ;  but 
already  in  the  nineteenth  chapter  there  are  found 
anticipatory  allusions  to  the  Bride,  the  marriage, 
and  the  marriage-supper  of  the  Lamb.  Similarly, 
in  xi.  7,  we  have  an  anticipatory  reference  to 
*'the  beast  that  cometh  up  out  of  the  abyss," 
the  full  description  of  which  is  reserved  for 
chaps,  xiii.  and  xviii.  It  is  the  same  character- 
istic of  style  which  we  are  to  recognise  here, 
finding  in  it  what  would  otherwise  be  perplexing. 
We  have  already  heard  when  the  seventh  bowl 
was  poured  the  solemn  proclamation,  ''  The  cities 
of  the  nations  fell ;  and  Babylon  the  great  was 
remembered  in  the  sight  of  God,  to  give  unto  her 
the  cup  of  the  wine  of  the  fierceness  of  his  wrath" 
(xvi.  19)  :  and  even  earlier  than  that  St.  John 
had  heard  a  similar  proclamation  from  the  lips 
of  an  angel:  "Fallen,  fallen,  is  Babylon  the  great, 
which  hath  made  all  nations  to  drink  of  the  wine 
of  the  wrath  of  her  fornication  "  (xiv.  8).  Now, 
in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  chapters  he 
returns  to  that  section  in  his  Vision  of  Judgment 
to  describe  with  great  minuteness  first  the  woman 
— Babylon,  and  then  the  judgment  which  should 
befall  her — just  as  one  describing  Michael  Angelo's 


CHAPTEE  XVII.-XIX.   10  271 

picture  might,' come  back  to  an  episode  therein 
which  he  had  already  mentioned,  in  order  to 
describe  it  with  a  fulness  of  detail  which  makes 
it  almost  a  picture  by  itself. 

A  wonderful  picture  it  is,  glowing  with  colour 
and    palpitating  with  feeling,   feeling  which  is 
almost  too  strong  for  the  framework  of  human 
language  and  symbol  in  which  it  is  enclosed.     A 
woman,  robed  in  garments  of  imperial  purple  and 
scarlet,  "  decked  with  gold  and  precious  stones," 
and  holding  in  her  hand  a  golden  cup.     She  is 
a  city,  seated,  like  Nineveh  and  Babylon  of  old, 
"upon  many  waters,"  and  also  like  Eome,  upon 
seven  hills ;  and  these  seven  hills  again  are  the 
seven  heads  of  the  beast,  nay,  it  is  on  the  beast 
itself  that  she  is   carried,  itself  aglow  with  the 
imperial  colour,  and  ''full  of  names  of  blasphemy." 
Upon  her  forehead  is  a  name  written,  **  Mystery, 
Babylon  the  great."     The  word  "  mystery  "  calls 
attention  to  a   symbol   which  requires,  and  has 
received,   an   interpretation.     *'  Babylon  "  is  the 
symbolic  name  of  this  city :  her  actual  name  is 
Kome.     The   "  many  waters "   represent  in   her 
case  the  innumerable  "peoples,  and  multitudes, 
and    nations,   and   tongues "  over   which   Rome 
holds  sway.     The  seven  hills,  on  which,  accord- 
ing to  tradition,  she  is   planted,   represent  the 
seven  Emperors,  on  whose  authority  the  city's 
power    is    broadly   based.     "Five  of    them  are 


272      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

fallen,"  Augustus,  Tiberius,  Caligula,  Claudius, 
and  Nero;  "one  is,"  namely,  Vespasian ;  **  the 
other  is  not  yet  come."  That  is  to  say,  the  vision 
belongs  to  the  reign  of  Vespasian,  the  sixth 
Emperor ;  the  reign  of  Titus  his  successor  and 
its  brief  duration  are  predicted  in  the  phrase, 
"  When  he  (the  seventh)  cometh,  he  must  con- 
tinue (but)  a  little  while."  And  once  more  a 
single  one  of  the  heads  appears  to  absorb  and 
concentrate  to  itself  all  the  personality  of  the 
monster,  and  we  read  of  the  beast  that  "  was, 
and  is  not,  and  is  about  to  come  up  out  of  the 
abyss,"  a  reference  to  the  dreaded  return  of 
Nero,  who  had  made  Kome  drunken  with  the 
blood  of  the  saints.  He  is  one  "  of  the  seven  "  ; 
and  on  his  return  he  will  be  "the  eighth." 
Neither  is  he  to  return  alone,  but  with  "ten 
kings,"  who  are  represented  by  the  "  ten  horns." 
They  have  "  received  no  kingdom  as  yet,"  but  are 
to  share  the  brief  authority  of  the  beast.  They  do 
not,  therefore,  find  their  antitypes  in  any  of  the 
Koman  rulers,  but  most  probably  represent  the 
Parthian  rulers,  the  independent  "satraps," 
the  "kings  from  the  sun-rising"  (xvi.  12),  at 
whose  head  Nero  was  to  return.  They  are  to 
hate  the  woman,  and  to  make  her  desolate  and 
naked,  and  burn  her  utterly  with  fire ;  but  also 
they  are  to  make  w^ar  against  the  Lamb,  "  and 
the  Lamb  shall  overcome  them." 


CHAPTER  XVII.-XIX.   10  273 

There  she  sits,  the  imperial  city  which  is  the 
concrete  embodiment  of  the  imperial  power,  full 
of  the  "  names  of  blasphemy,"  the  imperial  titles, 
"  Divine  Augustus,"  not  only  borne  by  the 
Emperor,  but  repeated  a  thousand  times  on 
temples,  statues,  coins,  so  that  the  city  reeked 
with  this  offence.  There  she  sits,  arrayed  in 
the  purple,  glittering  with  the  treasures  amassed 
through  centuries  of  conquest  and  commerce,  but 
holding  in  her  hand  the  cup  full  of  abominations. 
What  these  abominations  were,  we  learn  from 
the  pages  of  Tacitus,  or  the  satires  of  Juvenal. 
Eome  had  been  for  a  couple  of  centuries  a  *'  sink 
of  the  nations,"  a  receptacle  into  which  poured 
the  offscourings  of  many  peoples,  men  and  women 
who  came  to  minister  to  and  prey  upon,  the  vices 
and  sensuality  of  the  populace,  to  teach  them  the 
latest  iniquities  of  the  East.  Eome,  according 
to  Tacitus,  was  the  city  "where  all  kinds  of 
enormity  and  filthy  shame  meet  together  and 
become  fashionable."  These  were  her  *'  abomi- 
nations," and  under  Nero,  whose  reign  had  but 
recently  closed,  she  had  drunk  to  intoxication  of 
the  blood  of  God's  saints.  Again  we  turn  to 
Tacitus  and  read  :  "  A  vast  multitude  were  con- 
victed, not  so  much  of  arson,  as  of  hatred  of  the 
human  race.  And  they  were  not  only  put  to 
death,  but  put  to  death  with  insult,  in  that  they 
were  either  dressed  up  in  skins  of  beasts  to  perish 

19 


274      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

by  the  worrying  of  dogs,  or  else  put  on  crosses  to 
be  set  on  fire,  and,  when  the  dayhght  failed,  to 
be  burnt  as  torches  by  night."  These  were  the 
martyrs  of  Jesus,  and  Eome,  let  loose  upon  them 
by  the  half-crazy  Emperor,  was  "  drunken  with 
their  blood." 

That  is  the  meaning  of  this  vision.  We  have 
spoken  of  it  as  a  vision  of  Home,  though  the 
name  here  given  to  the  woman  is  not  Eome,  but 
"  Babylon  the  great."  Other  interpretations  have, 
of  course,  been  given,  for  example,  that  she  repre- 
sents Papal  (not  Imperial)  Eome,  or,  again,  the 
Church  herself  given  over  to  iniquity.  But, 
whatever  just  applications  and  meanings  we  may 
afterwards  find  to  be  addressed  to  either  of  these, 
the  first  thing  is  to  ascertain  what  the  symbol 
meant  for  the  writer  of  this  book  and  for  his 
earhest  readers.  And  on  this  point  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  In  these  chapters,  as  so  frequently 
elsewhere,  the  Apostle  is  making  use  of  a  symbol 
which  had  acquired  a  certain  well-defined  signifi- 
cance for  God's  people  in  the  course  of  their 
national  history,  a  significance  which  had  been 
stamped  upon  their  consciousness  by  the  ancient 
prophets  of  Israel. 

A  careful  comparison  of  the  parallel  passages, 
especially  those  in  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  will  show 
how  much  of  the  imagery  of  these  chapters  had 
formed  part  of  the  characteristics  of  Babylon  in 


CHAPTER  XVII.-XIX.   10  275 

the  Old  Testament ;  and  the  ease  with  which  the 
various    elements  in   this   description    are    here 
transferred  from  Babylon  to  Rome  depends  on 
the  identity  of  the  spirit  by  which  the  two  cities 
are  informed,   the   spirit  of   worldliness   and  of 
hostihty  to   God   and  His   Church.      This,   the 
essential  characteristic  of  Babylon,  has  been  well 
seized  by  Dr.  Adam  Smith  in  his  commentary  on 
Isaiah.    "  Throughout  the  extent  of  Bible  history 
from  Genesis   to   Revelation,   one   city  remains, 
which  in  fact  and  symbol  is  execrated  as  the 
enemy  of  God  and  the  stronghold  of  evil.     In 
Genesis  we  are  called  to  see  its  foundation,  as 
of  the  first  city  that  wandering  men  established 
and  the  quick  ruin  which  fell  upon  its  impious 
builders.     By  the  prophets  we  hear  it  cursed  as 
the  oppressor  of  God's  people,  the  temptress  of 
nations,  full  of  cruelty  and  wantonness.     And  in 
the  Book  of  Revelation  its  character  and  curse 
are  transferred  to  Rome,  and  New  Babylon  stands 
over  against  New  Jerusalem.     Babylon  is    the 
Atheist  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  she  is  the  Anti- 
christ of  the  New.     Her  haughtiness  and  secure 
pride  are  the  fruit  of  an  atheistic  self-sufficiency. 
*  I  am,  and  there  is  none  besides  me.      I  shall 
not  sit  as  a  widow ;  neither  shall  I  know  the  loss 
of   children,'   are  the  words  which  the   prophet 
puts  upon  the  lips  of  the  city.    And  the  same 
spirit  inspires  the  NewBabylonof  the  Apocalypse. 


276      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

She  saith  in  her  heart :  *  I  sit  a  queen,  and  am 
no  widow,  and  shall  in  no  wise  see  mourning.'  "* 
*'  Therefore  in  one  day  shall  her  plagues  come, 
death  and  mourning  and  famine  "  ;  and  the  vision 
of  the  woman  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  is 
followed  by  a  description  of  her  overthrow  in  the 
eighteenth.  Just  as  the  picture  of  Eome  in  her 
pride  is  painted  with  colours  which  are  largely 
borrowed  from  the  pictures  of  Babylon  drawn  by 
the  prophets,  so  also  this  prophetic  description  of 
her  fall.  It  is  full  of  reminiscences,  in  particular, 
of  Isaiah's  great  ode  upon  the  fallen  city. 
"Fallen,  fallen,  is  Babylon  the  great."  Like 
a  trumpet  heralding  the  approaching  day  of 
deliverance  these  words  would  fall  upon  the  ear 
of  the  Church  writhing  under  the  oppression 
of  blasphemous  Imperialism.  What  inspiration 
it  demanded,  what  faith  in  the  vindicating  power 
of  the  Divine  righteousness,  to  proclaim  with 
such  triumphant  certainty  the  overthrow  of  earth's 
mightiest  power !  Even  the  splendid  power  and 
dramatic  scorn  of  the  passage  t  in  Isaiah  find  no 
unworthy  parallel  in  this  passage  where  the  Seer 
depicts  the  ruin  of  Rome  in  its  completeness  and 
its  shame.  He  lets  us  appreciate  the  greatness 
and  the  unexpectedness  of  the  catastrophe,  in- 

'•-'  See  G.  A.  Smith :  Isaiah  ii.  p.  188  ff. 
I  It  should  by  all  means  be  read  and  studied  in  the  forcible 
and  rhythmical  translation  given  by  Dr.  G.  A.  Smith, 


CHAPTEE  XVII.-XIX.   10  277 

directly  but  not  less  effectively,  by  describing  the 
surprise  and  dismay  which  overwhelm  her  allies, 
her  customers,  the  purveyors  of  her  luxury. 
*'  The  merchants  of  the  earth  weep  and  mourn 
over  her,  for  no  man  buyeth  her  merchandise  any 
more."  He  shows  us  the  kings  "standing  afar 
off  for  fear  of  her  torment,"  lest  they  too  should 
be  engulfed  in  that  furnace — the  merchants 
recalling  all  the  invoices  they  had  made  out,  and 
crushed  with  the  thought  that  their  great  market 
w^as  at  an  end — all  of  them,  down  to  the  slave- 
gatherers  of  the  East,  whose  business  had 
collapsed.  Even  the  sailors  and  the  shipowners, 
those  who  depended  for  their  livelihood  on  Kome's 
great  carrying  trade,  are  seen  standing  afar  off, 
wringing  their  hands  in  utter  dismay.  For 
Eome,  great  Kome,  has  fallen.  And  to  complete 
the  picture,  still  with  the  aid  of  materials  supplied 
by  the  Old  Testament,  St.  John  takes  his  readers 
now  into  the  heart  of  the  city,  where  there  is 
darkness  and  silence ;  business  has  stopped ; 
music  is  dumb ;  life  has  fled.  What  a  picture  it 
is  of  destruction,  sudden,  and  utter,  and  appalhng  ! 
And  it  is  just  the  picture  which  comes  into  the 
mind  of  one  who  walks  down  the  echoing  streets 
of  a  place  like  Pompeii. 

It  is  indeed  difficult  to  fix  the  point  of  time  at 
which  this  prophecy  found  its  fulfilment.  It  is 
almost   equally  difficult  to  say  at  what  point  of 


278      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

time  since  the  fifth  century  its  fulfilment  has  not 
been  one  of  the  plain  facts  of  history.  Like  all 
God's  judgments  it  came  slowly,  and  it  came 
suddenly,  both  by  evolution  and  by  crisis.  We 
see  it  working  in  the  slow  decay  of  political  and 
moral  force  which  set  in  from  the  beginning  of 
the  second  century,  in  the  paralysing  effects  of 
those  social  poisons  which  Eome  had  admitted 
into  her  system,  slavery  and  lust,  avarice  and 
luxury,  eating  away  the  life  of  the  people,  until 
the  great  name  and  power  of  Kome  was  but  a 
hollow  shell.  And  then,  at  one  blow,  it  collapsed. 
The  "barbarians,"  the  untutored,  unspoilt  race 
of  the  North  and  East,  threw  off  their  reverence 
for  the  name  of  Kome,  and  sweeping  all  the 
empire's  defences  before  them,  besieged,  captured, 
and  possessed  the  capital  itself.  The  capture  and 
sack  of  Kome  by  Alaric  the  Goth  is  probably  the 
most  striking  of  the  many  forms  in  which  this 
prophecy  has  found  its  fulfilment — an  event, 
the  echoes  of  which  reverberated  throughout  the 
known  world,  startling  Jerome  in  his  cell  at 
Bethlehem,  and  rousing  Augustine  in  his  African 
bishopric  to  write  in  his  City  of  God  what  is  not 
only  the  epitaph  of  *'Kome,"  but  the  greatest 
vindication  of  God's  hand  in  history. 

But  while  we  may  see  in  this  event  the  most 
striking  material  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy,  we 
must  not  forget  to  mark  its  slow  fulfilment  also 


CHAPTEE  XVII.-XIX.   10  279 

in  the  overthrow  of  the  blasphemous  Emperor- 
worship,  in  the  victory  of  the  Lamb  over  this 
monstrous  foe,  and  of  the  Church,  which  had  the 
spirit  of  the  Lamb,  over  world-powers,  which  to  all 
human  judgment  were  immeasurably  its  superior. 
And  then  we  are  led  to  discover  the  message 
of  the  vision  for  ourselves  and  for  all  time,  the 
inexpugnable  righteousness  of  God  and  its  assured 
victory  over  all  the  might  and  seeming  majesty 
of  wickedness  and  wrong.  But  specially  the  pro- 
phecy has  reference  to  the  forms  in  which  wrong 
and  wickedness  incarnate  themselves  in  the  life 
of  great  cities.  Professor  Adam  Smith's  words 
concerning  Isaiah's  prophecy  on  Babylon  apply 
with  equal  force  here  :  ''  Do  not  let  us  choke  our 
interest  in  this  prophecy,  as  so  many  students  of 
prophecy  do,  in  the  ruins  and  dust  which  were 
its  primary  fulfilment.  The  shell  of  Babylon, 
the  gorgeous  city  which  rose  by  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates,  has  indeed  sunk  into  heaps ;  but 
Babylon  herself  is  not  dead.  Babylon  never 
dies.  To  the  conscience  of  Christ's  Seer,  this 
mother  of  harlots,  though  dead  and  deserted  in 
the  East,  came  to  life  again  in  the  West.  To  the 
city  of  Kome  in  his  day  John  transferred,  word 
by  word,  the  phrases  of  [Isaiah  and  Jeremiah]. 
Eome  was  Babylon  so  far  as  Eome  was  filled 
with  cruelty,  with  arrogance,  with  trust  in  riches, 
with  credulity  in  divination,  with  that  waste  of 


280      THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

mental  and  moral  power  which  Juvenal  exposed 
in  her.  But  we  are  not  to  leave  the  matter  even 
here ;  we  are  to  use  that  freedom  with  John 
which  John  uses  with  the  prophets.  We  are 
to  pass  by  the  particular  fulfilment  of  his  words, 
in  which  he  and  his  day  were  interested,  because 
it  can  only  have  a  historical  and  secondary 
interest  to  us  in  the  face  of  other  Babylons  in 
our  own  da^jj  with  which  our  consciences,  if 
they  are  quick,  ought  to  be  busy.  Some  honest 
people  continue  to  confine  the  references  in  the 
Book  of  Kevelation  to  the  city  and  Church  of 
Eome.  It  is  quite  true  that  John  meant  the 
Kome  of  his  day;  it  is  quite  true  that  many 
features  of  his  Babylon  may  be  traced  upon  the 
successor  of  the  Koman  Empire,  the  Koman 
Church.  But  what  is  that  to  us  with  incarna- 
tions of  the  Babylonian  spirit  so  much  nearer 
ourselves  for  infection  and  for  danger  than  the 
Church  of  Kome  can  ever  be  ?  "  * 

In  order  to  quicken  and  educate  our  own 
consciences  in  this  matter,  we  cannot  do  better 
than  go  back  nearly  fifteen  centuries,  and  read 
the  passage  in  which  Augustine  described  the 
spirit  of  Babylon  as  he  saw  it  incarnate  in 
Imperial  Eome. 

''  The  worshippers  and  admirers  of  these  gods 
*  G.  A  Smith  :  Isaiah  ii.  p.  199. 


CHAPTEK  XVII.-XIX.   10  281 

delight  in  imitating  their  scandalous  iniquities, 
and  are  nowise  concerned  that  the  Eepublic  be 
less  depraved  and  licentious.  Only  let  it  remain 
undefeated,  they  say,  only  let  it  flourish  and 
abound  in  resources :  let  it  be  glorious  by  its 
victories,  or  still  better,  secure  in  peace;  and 
what  matters  it  to  us  ?  This  is  our  concern, 
that  every  man  be  able  to  increase  his  wealth 
so  as  to  supply  his  daily  prodigalities,  and  so 
that  the  powerful  may  subject  the  weak  for 
their  own  purposes.  Let  the  poor  court  the 
rich  for  a  living,  and  that  under  their  protec- 
tion they  may  enjoy  a  sluggish  tranquillity; 
and  let  the  rich  abuse  the  poor  as  their  dependents, 
to  minister  to  their  pride.  Let  the  people  applaud 
not  those  who  protect  their  interests,  but  those 
who  provide  them  with  pleasure.  Let  no  severe 
duty  be  commanded,  no  impurity  forbidden. 
Let  kings  estimate  their  prosperity,  not  by  the 
righteousness,  but  by  the  servility  of  their  subjects. 
Let  the  provinces  stand  loyal  to  the  kings,  not 
as  moral  guides,  but  as  lords  of  their  possessions 
and  purveyors  of  their  pleasures :  not  with  a 
hearty  reverence,  but  a  crooked  and  servile  fear. 
Let  the  laws  take  cognisance  rather  of  the  injury 
done  to  another  man's  property  than  of  that  done 
to  one's  own  person.  If  a  man  be  a  nuisance 
to  his  neighbour,  or  injure  his  property,  family,  or 
person,  let  him  be  actionable;   but  in   his  own 


282      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

affairs  let  every  one  with  impunity  do  what  he 
will  in  company  with  his  own  family  and  with 
those  who  willingly  join  him.  Let  there  be  a  plenti- 
ful public  supply  of  prostitutes  for  every  one  who 
vdshes  to  use  them,  but  specially  for  those  who 
are  too  poor  to  keep  one  for  their  private  use. 
Let  there  be  erected  houses  of  the  largest  and 
most  ornate  description  :  in  these  let  there  be 
provided  the  most  sumptuous  banquets,  where 
every  one  who  pleases  may,  by  day  or  night, 
play,  drink,  vomit,  dissipate.  Let  there  be 
everywhere  heard  the  rustling  of  dancers,  the  loud, 
immodest  laughter  of  the  theatre ;  let  a  suc- 
cession of  the  most  cruel  and  the  most  voluptuous 
pleasures  maintain  a  perpetual  excitement.  If 
such  happiness  is  distasteful  to  any,  let  him  be 
branded  as  a  public  enemy :  and  if  any  attempt 
to  modify  or  put  an  end  to  it,  let  him  be  silenced, 
banished,  put  an  end  to.  Let  these  be  reckoned 
the  true  gods  who  procure  for  the  people  this 
condition  of  things,  and  preserve  it  when  once 
possessed."  * 

How  familiar  it  all  sounds,  and  how  modern ! 
It  would  not  require  a  very  minute  study  of  our 
public  life  for  a  single  week  to  ^nd  nearly,  if  not 
quite  all  of  these  ideas  enunciated  with  dogmatic 
certitude,  and  appealed  to  as  the  principles  by 
which  a  people  should  be  guided.  They  are  the 
-''  Augustine,  City  of  Godf  ii.  20. 


CHAPTER  XVII.-XIX.  10  283 

outcome  of  the  temper  of  the  world  in  its  opposi- 
tion to  God.  And  this  is  the  temper  of  Babylon; 
and  who  shall  dare  to  say  that  it  is  not  the 
temper  of  much  of  our  modern  civilisation,  the 
temper  which  is  fostered  especially  in  our  great 
cities  ? 

It  is  impossible  that  God's  people  should  not 
feel  the  pressure  and  the  pain  of  dwelling  in  an 
atmosphere  infected  to  any  great  extent  with  a 
temper  of  this  kind.  They  would  not  be  God's 
people  if  they  did  not.  But  let  them  welcome 
both  the  pressure  and  the  pain.  They  are  the 
stigmata,  the  mark  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  weight 
of  the  Cross.  And  if  we  ask,  further.  What  saith 
the  Lord  touching  these  things?  here  it  is 
written  in  His  Word,  and  confirmed  by  history  : 
they  are  marked  for  destruction.  "  The  Lamb 
shall  overcome  them ;  for  he  is  King  of  kings 
and  Lord  of  lords."  "  Fallen,  fallen,  is  Babylon 
the  great."  And  while  every  impulse  of  humanity, 
of  patriotism,  of  religion,  combines  with  three- 
fold power  to  urge  us  to  strive  for  the  crushing, 
and  checking,  and  removal  of  these  tempers  of 
Babylon  within  the  body  social  or  ecclesiastical  to 
which  we  may  belong,  and  to  pray  without  ceasing 
that  God  may  deliver  us  from  the  unclean  spirits 
of  cruelty,  vanity  of  knowledge,  vanity  of  wealth, 
lust,  and  luxury,  forgetfulness  of  God  and  idolatry 
of   self, — there  is  also  that  other  counsel  to  be 


284      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

remembered,  *'  Come  forth,  my  people,  out  of  her, 
that  ye  have  no  fellowship  with  her  sins,  and  that 
ye  receive  not  of  her  plagues,"  the  summons 
which  is  addressed  to  us  individually  to  resist  the 
infection  of  the  spirit  of  Babylon,  to  deny  our 
hearts  to  her  lures,  and  steel  them  against  her 
threats,  to  know  ourselves  redeemed,  purchased 
to  be  a  people  of  God's  own  possession,  to  know 
it  because,  even  in  the  midst  of  '*  a  crooked  and 
perverse  generation,"  we  "  live  not  unto  ourselves, 
but  unto  God." 


EPILOGUE   TO  THE  VISION  OF  BABYLON 
Eev.  xix.  1-10 

The  twofold  vision  of  Babylon  and  Babylon 
fallen  is  followed  by  this  short  section,  which 
serves  as  an  epilogue  to  chaps,  xvii.  and  xviii.,  and 
also  as  a  prologue  to  chapters  which  follow,  and 
so  forms  the  link  by  which  these  two  sections 
of  the  book  are  connected.  Viewed  as  an  epi- 
logue, it  shows  us  the  writer  pursuing  the  method 
with  w^hich  we  are  already  familiar  by  setting 
over  against  the  dark  pictures  of  evil  on  earth 
which  have  occupied  the  previous  chapter  this 
glowing  picture  of  joy  and  praising  multitudes  in 
heaven.  We  are  allo\ved  to  hear  the  burst  of 
praise  which  goes  up  from  the  heavenly  hosts  when 


CHAPTEB  XVII.-XIX.   10  285 

that  great  judgment  is  accomplished.  There  is 
no  separation  of  interests  between  the  Church 
mihtant  and  the  Church  triumphant.  The  struggle 
on  earth  is  watched  as  with  breathless  interest  by 
the  redeemed  and  by  the  angeHc  beings  in  heaven. 
And  to  them  it  is  given  to  acclaim  with  perfect 
understanding  the  great  deeds  of  God.  "  Salva- 
tion, and  glory,  and  power  belong  to  our  God  : 
for  true  and  righteous  are  his  judgments ;  for  he 
hath  judged  the  great  harlot."  Once  more,  as  in 
the  Hymn  of  Creation,  the  Hymn  of  Kedemption, 
and  after  the  sounding  of  the  seventh  trumpet, 
"the  four  and  twenty  elders  and  the  four  living 
creatures  "  fall  down  and  worship  God;  and  the 
voice  of  a  great  multitude  proclaims,  "  Halle- 
lujah :  for  the  Lord  our  God,  the  Almighty, 
reigneth." 

These  verses  thus  provide  a  pause  in  the 
action,  and  the  summing-up  in  striking  form  of 
the  events  which  have  been  recorded  in  the  fore- 
going chapter :  but  also  they  link  them  with  what 
is  to  follow  through  the  mention  for  the  first  time 
of  the  great  idea  round  which  the  later  chapters 
turn.  ''Let  us  rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad  .  .  . 
for  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  his 
wife  hath  made  herself  ready."  *  The  last  verses 
of  this  paragraph  sound  as  if  they  were  meant  to 
be  the  closing  chords  of  the  Apostle's  work ;  but 
"•'  See  further,  pp.  303  ff. 


286      THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

with  this  new  and  insistent  note  sounding  through 
them  we  are  prepared  to  find  that,  although  it 
comes  to  a  well-marked  pause,  it  is  only  to  move 
forward  again  with  a  •  further  upward  sweep 
towards  the  end. 


SEVEN  VISIONS  CONCEKNING  THE 
END 

Rbv.  xix.  11 — xxi.  1 

The  division  of  the  Apocalypse  into  chapters  has 
been  pecuHarly  unfortunate  at  this  point.  There 
should  certainly  have  been  a  break  at  the  end  of 
the  tenth  verse,  where  one  of  the  most  strongly 
marked  pauses  in  the  book  occurs,  and  probably  it 
would  be  better  to  make  the  section  which  begins 
here  include  the  first  verse  at  least  of  chap.  xx. 
The  earlier  verses  of  xix.,  though  they  include  a 
striking  case  of  "  anticipatory  prediction,"  belong 
to  the  prophecy  on  Babylon,  and  when  we  pass  to 
the  eleventh  verse,  we  find  the  first  of  a  series  of 
seven  visions,  closely  related  to  one  another,  and  all 
connected  with  various  aspects  of  the  End.  All 
of  these  begin  with  the  simple  phrase,  "And  I 
saw,"  and  all  are  bound  by  many  subtle  links 
of  connection,  by  community  of  subject  and  of 
phraseology,  with  earlier  sections  of  the  book.  If 
the  careful  reader  were  to  underline  first  those 
phrases  which   have   appeared   in  the    previous 

287 


288      THE  BOOK  OF  BEVELATION 

chapters  and  then  those  which  are  closely  parallel 
to  the  language  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  would 
prepare  for  himself  an  instructive  lesson. 

The  Apostle  comes  at  last  to  describe  his  vision 
of  the  End.  Even  this,  the  end  of  the  last  things, 
was  never  far  away  for  him  ;  the  beginning  of 
them  was  close  at  hand,  and  the  intervening 
process  of  judgment  was  made  up  of  "things 
which  must  come  to  pass  shortly,"  that  is,  swiftly 
as  well  as  soon.  But  his  survey  of  these  intervening 
things  is  over :  it  is  the  final  Judgment  which 
now  appears,  and  the  first  stage  of  it  is  the  final 
conflict  between  Christ  and  His  enemies.  In  the 
first  vision  (vers.  11-16)  we  see  the  figure  of 
Christ  leading  forth  the  armies  of  heaven.  It  is 
through  the  opened  heaven  that  He  is  seen,  and 
probably  on  the  plane  of  heaven  that  He  wages 
war.  It  is  not  with  flesh  and  blood  that  He  is  to 
engage,  but  with  "  principaHties  and  powers," 
with  **  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world," 
with  the  spiritual  forces  which  give  support  and 
authority  to  the  forces  of  evil  upon  earth.  The 
garment  in  which  He  is  arrayed  is  one  which 
has  been  dipped  in  blood  ;  He  recalls  the  figure 
in  Isaiah,  coming  **  with  dyed  garments  from 
Bozrah."  There  the  reference  is  to  the  blood  of 
His  enemies :  but  here  the  stains  upon  the  robe 
are  symbolic  of  that  self-sacrifice  in  the  power  of 
which  He  goes  forth  to  conquer.     Other  features 


CHAPTER  XIX.    11— XXI.   1         289 

in  the  vision,  especially  those  set  forth  in  the 
fifteenth  verse,  are  attributes  consecrated  by  long 
tradition,  as  belonging  to  Messiah — *'  Out  of  his 
mouth  proceedeth  a  sharp  sword,  that  with  it  he 
should  smite  the  nations  (Is.  xi.  4)  :  and  he  shall 
rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron  (Ps.  ii.  9)  :  and  he 
treadeth  the  winepress  of  the  fierceness  of  the 
wrath  of  Almighty  God  "  (Is.  Ixiii.  3).  But  the 
vision  has  other  features,  for  which  no  such 
parallel  can  be  found ;  and  they  are  the  names 
which  belong  to  this  majestic  Rider.  One  of  these 
is  "  written,"  but  known  to  no  one  but  Himself. 
It  is  useless,  therefore,  to  speculate  as  to  what 
that  name  might  be :  but  there  can  be  no  little 
doubt  as  to  its  significance.  It  is  not  either  of  the 
names  which  follow,  but  another,  a  secret  "  name 
of  power,"  representing  the  inmost  Divine  being 
of  Christ,  in  the  possession  of  which  He  is  **  able 
to  save  to  the  uttermost  them  that  come  unto  God 
by  him."  The  second  name  is  not  written,  but  it  is 
known,  and  it  is  the  same  name  by  which  John  the 
Evangelist  describes  Him  who  "  was  made  flesh, 
and  dwelt  among  us."  Thus  both  the  names  for 
Christ  which  are  most  characteristic  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  ''the  Lamb"  and  ''the  Word  of  God," 
are  found  also  as  names  for  Him  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse, and  there  alone.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
discuss  either  the  meaning  or  the  history  of  this 
name ;  but  the  application  of  it  to  Christ  marks 
20 


290      THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

the  recognition  of  His  supra-mundane  and  pre- 
existent  being,  as  One  who  was  "in  the  be- 
ginning," and  "with  God."  The  third  of  these 
names  takes  us  yet  a  step  further.  It  is  open  to 
be  read  of  all,  inscribed  upon  the  Eider's  robe 
and  on  His  sword-girdle — "  King  of  kings  and 
Lord  of  lords."  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point 
out  the  significance  of  this  name,  but  we  must 
weigh  well  what  it  means,  that  a  description 
which  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  later  Jewish 
literature  was  assigned  to  the  Most  High  God,  is 
here  applied  to  Jesus  returning  for  judgment.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  Jew  applying 
this  title  to  the  Messiah,  or  to  any  being  at  all, 
except  one  whom  he  recognised  as  God :  and 
when  we  find  one  who  certainly  belonged  to  the 
circle  of  Jesus'  disciples,  describing  this  as  His 
title,  we  have  a  measure  of  the  revolution  through 
which  his  thought  had  passed,  and  also  of  the 
impression  which  Jesus,  by  His  life,  character, 
and  teaching,  by  His  death  and  resurrection,  had 
made.*  Is  it  not  the  rank,  and  the  divinity,  thus 
repeatedly,  simply,  and  absolutely  ascribed  to 
Jesus  in  the  Apocalypse,  which  secures  its  hold 
upon  Christian  hearts  ? 

The  second  vision  (17-18)  is  that  of  an  angel 
"standing  in   the    sun,"   as   the   centre   of    the 
heavens  from  which  a  summons  might  be  issued 
*  See  pp.  24  ff. 


CHAPTEE  XIX.   11— XXI.   1  291 

to  all  the  world,  and  summoning  "  all  the  birds 
that  fly  in  mid-heaven"  to  gather  to  the  feast 
of  the  slain.  It  is  closely  parallel  to  a  passage 
in  Ezekiel  (xxxix.  17-20) :  "  Speak  unto  the  birds 
of  every  sort,  and  to  every  beast  of  the  field. 
Assemble  yourselves  and  come ;  gather  your- 
selves on  every  side  to  my  sacrifice."  It  recalls 
also  our  Lord's  saying,  *' Where  the  carcase  is, 
there  shall  the  eagles  be  gathered  together." 

This  summons  to  a  field  strewn  with  dead  is 
followed  by  a  vision  of  the  enemies  of  Christ 
going  forth  to  meet  Him  (17-21).  The  day  of 
Armageddon  has  come,  and  the  final  struggle 
between  the  armies  of  God  and  the  embattled 
hosts  of  His  enemies.  ''  The  kings  of  the  earth  " 
are  those  who  owe  their  authority  to  the  beast, 
or  those  whom  he  has  summoned  to  his  aid 
(xvii.  12-14).  The  vision  contains  no  description 
of  the  conflict,  but  passes  straight  to  the  issue ; 
the  beast  is  taken,  and  with  him  the  ''false 
prophet,"  by  whom  is  plainly  to  be  understood 
the  second  monster  of  chapter  xvii.,  the  priest- 
hood of  the  imperial  cult,  which  wrought  the 
signs  or  pretended  miracles,  "  wherewith  he 
deceived  them  that  had  received  the  mark  of 
the  beast."  These  are  taken  and  ''cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire."  The  destruction  of  the  beast 
by  fire  is  found  in  Daniel  (vii.  12) :  "I  tarried 
even    till    the    beast  was    slain,   and   his   body 


292      THE   BOOK   OF   EEVELATION 

destroyed ;  and  he  was  given  to  be  burned  with 
fire."  The  figure  of  a  ''  lake  of  fire  that  burneth 
with  brimstone  "  is  found  only  in  the  Apocalypse; 
elsewhere,  in  the  New  Testament  we  read  of 
the  valley  of  "  unquenchable  fire,"  or  **  the 
Gehenna  of  fire,"  as  the  doom  of  the  wicked. 
Ge-henna,  or  the  Valley  of  Hinnom,  had  been 
the  scene  of  abominable  sacrifices,  when  Ahaz 
and  Manasseh  caused  their  children  to  pass 
through  the  fire  "to  Moloch,"  and  ever  after- 
wards it  was  a  place  accursed,  used  for  the 
destruction  of  all  manner  of  unclean  things. 
From  the  time  of  Isaiah  onward  (xxx.  33), 
Tophet,  "the  high  places"  of  which  were  in 
the  valley  of  the  Son  of  Hinnom,*  was  a  symbol 
of  the  burning  judgment  of  God,  and  used  typically 
as  the  scene  of  its  execution. 

In  the  fourth  vision  we  see  the  evil  wrought 
by  the  beast  and  the  kings  in  his  train  pursued 
to  its  source  in  "the  dragon,  the  old  serpent, 
which  is  the  Devil  and  Satan."  An  angel  is 
seen  with  the  key  of  "  the  abyss  "  and  a  great 
chain  in  his  hand ;  with  the  chain  he  binds 
Satan,  and  having  cast  him  into  the  abyss,  seals 
and  fastens  it  with  the  key,  that  there  he  may 
be  kept  for  a  thousand  years.  A  comparison 
with  verse  10  shows  that  "the  abyss"  is  not 
to  be  understood  as  the  place  of  final  punishment. 
^  Jer,  vii.  31 ;  xxxii.  15. 


CHAPTEK  XIX.   11— XXI.   1         293 

The  word  meaning  "bottomless,"  or  ''the  bottom- 
less place,"  is  connected  with  ideas  anciently 
cmrrent  regarding  the  configuration  of  the  earth 
and  the  way  it  was  supported.  The  earth  being 
conceived  as  a  flat  disc  floating  on  "a  firmament" 
of  waters,  the  ''abyss"  stood  for  the  immeasurable 
depths  beneath  the  earth,  to  which  there  was 
understood  to  be  access  by  a  shaft,  capable  of 
being  sealed.*  The  period  of  Satan's  confinement 
is  no  doubt  to  be  understood  as  corresponding 
with  the  period  of  the  martyrs'  reign  "with 
Christ"  (xx.  4),  and  will  best  be  considered  in 
connection  with  that. 

The  next  vision  is  that  of  the  First  Kesurrection, 
a  resurrection  which  includes  only  those  who  have 
died  the  martyr-death.  It  has  been  maintained, 
to  the  contrary,  that  this  resurrection  includes 
two  classes,  first,  those  "that  have  been  beheaded 
for  the  testimony  of  Jesus,"  and  then  those  that 
"  worshipped  not  the  beast,"  and  that  the  second 
of  these  classes  represent  men  still  living  upon 
the  earth,  who  have  successfully  resisted  the 
temptations  and  the  apostasy.  But  in  the  first 
place,  the  Apostle  says  that  he  saw  "the  souls" 
of  both  classes  :  evidently  he  thinks  of  both  alike 

*  See  Century  Bible,  note  on  Eev.  ix.  1,  and  references 
there.  There  is  an  interesting  parallel  in  the  prayer  of 
Manasseh:  "O  Lord  Almighty  .  .  .  who  hast  shut  up  the 
deep  (the  abyss),  and  sealed  it  by  thy  terrible  and  glorious 
name  "  (cit.  Bousset). 


294      THE  BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

as  having  passed  into  a  disembodied  state.  And, 
further,  he  says  of  both  classes  that  "they  Hved"; 
and  though  it  might  be  possible  to  understand  by 
that  "they  continued  to  live,"  if  it  referred  to  one 
class  alone,  it  is  most  improbable  that  the  same 
word  is  used  of  the  two  classes  in  the  two  con- 
trasted meanings,  "  they  came  to  be  alive,"  and 
*'  they  continued  to  live."  And,  thirdly,  the  next 
sentence  shows  that  the  writer  is  thinking  only 
of  the  dead;  "the  rest  of  the  dead  (those  that 
had  not  died  the  martyr-death)  lived  not  until 
the  thousand  years  should  be  finished."  And  the 
closing  sentence  of  the  description,  "  This  is  the 
first  resurrection,"  taken  in  connection  with  the 
opening  one,  "I  saw  the  souls,"  seem  to  leave  us 
no  alternative  but  to  regard  both  classes  referred 
to  within  these  limits  as  consisting  of  those  who 
had  died  and  now  were  made  alive.* 

Few  questions  in  which  the  Apocalypse  of  St. 
John  was  involved  have  been  longer  or  more 
hotly  debated  than  this  of  the  millennial  reign  of 
Christ,  in  which  some  of  His  followers  are  to 
share.  That  this  book  was  appealed  to  in 
support  of  one  view  was  one  reason  why  it  had 
so  much   difficulty  in   obtaining  recognition   as 

*  It  should  be  said  that  both  Bousset  and  Bernhard  Weiss 
{die  Apokahjj)se,  p.  519)  take  the  opposite  view,  holding  that 
those  who  have  refused  the  mark  of  the  beast  and  not  been 
martyred,  do  also  partake  in  the  millennial  reign,  though 
not,  of  coiu'se,  in  the  first  resurrection. 


CHAPTEE  XIX.   11— XXI.   1  295 

part  of  the  New  Testament  canon.     There  are 
a  few  other  passages  in  the  New  Testament  in 
which  allusion  has  been  found  to  this  expectation; 
but  here  only  is  it  distinctly  formulated ;  among 
first-century  writings  it  appears  only  in  one  other 
document,  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas.*     There  are 
three  points  to  be  studied  in  connection  with  this 
millennial  reign,  the  persons  who  are  to  share  in 
it,  the  duration  which  is  assigned  to  it,  and  the 
scene  or  sphere  in  which  it  is  exercised,  whether 
in  heaven  or  upon  earth.     With  regard  to   the 
first,  the  persons  who  are  to  "  reign  with  Christ," 
we  have  stated,  and  given  reason  for,  our  opinion, 
that  they  are  those  who  have  died  a  martyr-death 
"  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus."    There  is,  however, 
a  strongly  supported  opinion,  that  they  include 
also  those  who,  being  still  alive  at  the  time  of  the 
"first  resurrection,"  have  not  received  the  mark 
of  the  beast.     On  the  second  point,  it  is  one  of 
the   great  services  rendered  by  Dr.   Milligan  to 
the  understanding  of  this  book   that   he   stated 
so  firmly  the  conventional  nature  of  the   time- 
reckoning,    "a   thousand   years."     ''The  funda- 
mental principle  to  be  kept  in  view  is  this :  that 
the   thousand  years  mentioned   in   this   passage 
express  no    period   of    time.       They   are  not  a 
figure  for  the  whole  Christian  era,  now  extending 
to  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years.     Nor  do  they 
=•-  Bartlett,  Ajtostolic  Age,  p.  377. 


296      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

denote  a  certain  space  of  time,  longer  or  shorter, 
it  may  be,  than  the  present  dispensation,  and  to 
be  in  the  view  of  some  preceded,  in  the  view 
.of  others  followed,  by  the  Second  Advent  of  our 
Lord.  They  embody  an  idea ;  and  that  idea, 
whether  applied  to  the  subjugation  of  Satan,  or 
to  the  triumph  of  the  saints,  is  the  idea  of  com- 
pleteness or  perfection.  Satan  is  bound  for  a 
thousand  years ;  that  is,  he  is  completely  bound. 
The  saints  reign  for  a  thousand  years;  that  is, 
they  are  introduced  into  a  state  of  perfect  and 
glorious  victory."  Apart  from  the  general  prin- 
ciples which  guide  the  selection  of  these  numbers 
in  the  Apocalypse,  we  may  recognise  here  a 
combination  of  the  declaration  in  Psalm  xc.  that 
unto  God  "  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day," 
with  the  narrative  of  Creation  in  Genesis,  with 
the  seventh  day  marked  off  as  a  day  of  rest. 
The  time-reckoning  here  does  not  express  the 
duration,  but  the  character  of  the  period.  As 
to  the  third  point,  the  sphere  of  the  millennial 
reign,  the  chief  thing  to  be  observed  is,  that  there 
is  nothing  to  indicate  whether  it  is  on  earth  or 
in  heaven  that  '*  they  reign  with  Christ."  It 
may  be  to  the  same  class  that  the  Apostle 
assigns  the  ''thrones"  of  which  he  speaks  in 
the  beginning  of  the  verse.  In  that  case  it  is  in 
or  from  heaven  that  they  rule.  And,  even  if 
that   argument   be  precarious,   the   probabilities 


CHAPTEK  XIX.   11-XXI.   1  297 

point  in  the  same  direction.  We  recall  the  pro- 
mise in  the  letter  to  Laodicea:  ''To  him  that 
overcometh  will  I  give  to  sit  with  me  in  my 
throne  :  "  a  promise  which  is  not  to  be  under- 
stood as  connected  with  a  visible  kingship  of 
Christ  upon  earth.  There  is  certainly  no  neces- 
sity, therefore,  to  create  difficulties  of  another 
kind,  by  supposing  that  this  vision  of  the  future 
involves  a  "  double  return "  of  Christ  to  the 
earth.  There  is  nothing  in  the  passage  to 
support  that  suggestion."*' 

"Blessed  and  holy  is  he  that  hath  part  in  the 
first  resurrection."  For  that  resurrection  is  not 
followed  by  any  judgment,  there  being  no  neces- 
sity for  it,  and  therefore  "  over  these  "  the  second 
death  can  have  no  power.  It  was  one  of  the 
great  objects  of  the  Apostolic  work  to  brace 
the  courage  of  the  Christians  in  Asia  to  meet 
the  coming  persecution  with  a  heroism  that 
despised  death,  and  to  that  end  he  sets  before 
them  the  glory  of  those  who  sealed  their  testi- 
mony with  their  life-blood,  and  the  hope  of  this 
special  privilege  that  they  should  be  partakers  in 
a  "  first  resurrection,"  and  in  the  reign  of  Christ, 
anterior  to  the  final  Judgment. 

-  "  That  they  reigned  with  Christ,  by  no  means  involves 
that  the  returning  Christ  remains  on  earth :  it  is  also  pos- 
sible for  Him  to  exercise  His  Messianic  sovereignty,  through 
which  He  restores  the  perfect  rule  of  God  on  earth,  from  the 
throne  of  God."     B.  Weiss,  A^pocalyjjsc,  ad  loc. 


298      THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

In  the  following  verses  (7,  8)  St.  John  appears 
to  incorporate  a  fragment  of  earlier  prophecy. 
The  sudden  transition  from  the  narrative  descrip- 
tive of  a  vision  to  the  prophetic  future,  the 
reference  to  ''Gog  and  Magog"  as  symbols  of  a 
world  hostile  to  the  people  of  God,  and  the 
allusions  to  Jerusalem  as  the  object  of  their 
attack,  all  point  in  this  direction.  Gog  and 
Magog,  which  in  Ezekiel  (xxxviii.-xxxix.)  stand 
apparently  for  a  prince  and  the  land  over  which 
he  rules,  are  here  conceived  as  two  peoples,  or 
the  people  of  the  earth  regarded  as  divided  into 
two;  they  come  up  in  great  hordes  to  attack 
''the  beloved  city,"  ''the  camp  of  the  saints,"* 
being  moved  thereto  by  the  instigation  of  Satan, 
loosed,  we  are  not  told  how,  from  ''his  prison." 
But  they  are  destroyed  by  fire  "  out  of  heaven," 
and  the  devil  "  which  deceived  them  "  is  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire. 

The  sixth  vision  (verses  11-15),  brief  as  it  is, 
contains  all  that  the  Kevelation  has  to  say  about 
the  Last  Judgment,  that  great  assize  which  is 
to  follow  the  resurrection.  There  is  no  more 
impressive  picture  even  in  this  book  where  such 
pictures  abound.     It  says  so  little,  and  yet  all  is 

'•'  The  phrase  "  the  camp  of  the  saints  "  probably  referred 
in  the  first  instance  to  Israel  encamped  in  the  wilderness ; 
cf.  Deut.  xxiii.  14,  "  thy  camp  shall  be  holy."  The  word  is 
the  same  which  is  found  in  Heb.  xiii.  13,  "  without  the 
camp." 


CHAPTEE  XIX.   11— XXI.   1         299 

said.     The  throne  dazzhng  with  the  whiteness  of 
the  Divine  purity ;  the  Judge,  reverently  indicated, 
but  not  named ;  the  whole  material  fabric  of  the 
universe  gone,  fled,  so  that  there  are  not  even 
rocks  which  men  may  call  upon  to  fall  on  them ; 
"the  dead,   the   great   and   the   small,    standing 
before  the  throne,"  and,  besides,  nothing  but  the 
books  in  which  their  works  are  written,  and  that 
other  book,  the  Book  of  Life.     It  may  be  asked, 
Who  are  these  dead  ?    And  the  answer  has  been 
given  that  they  are  the  wicked  alone,  that  this 
judgment  is  a  judgment  only  for  condemnation. 
On  the  theory  supported  above,  that  those  who 
partake  in  the  first  resurrection  are  the  martyrs 
only,  such  an  understanding  of  this  passage  would 
be  hardly  possible.   But,  apart  from  that,  it  seems 
decidedly  improbable.      In   the   first    place,   the 
Apostle  has  told  us  (xx.  5),  "the  rest  of  the  dead 
lived  not "   at  the   first  resurrection,  and   some 
place  must  be  found  in  his  vision  of  the  future 
for  the  resurrection  of  those  who  are  not  included 
in  either  of  the  two  classes  described  in  verse  4, 
for  those  who  did  not   have   the  opportunity  of 
testifying    either  in    life   or  in   death    by   their 
resistance    to    the    beast.      The    particular    test 
applied  to  these  was  far  from  being  one  applied 
to  all  humanity.     And  it  would   seem  that  we 
must  either  narrow  the  scope  of  this  vision  to 
include  only  those  wicked  who  had  met  this  test 


300      THE  BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

and  failed,  or  extend  it  to  include  the  good  and 
bad  alike.  Again,  this  is  the  only  representation 
of  the  final  Judgment  which  appears  to  be  con- 
sistent with  what  other  passages  in  the  New 
Testament  would  lead  us  to  expect.  In  what  is 
the  closest  parallel  to  this  passage  which  we  have 
we  are  told  by  Christ  Himself  that  "  all  nations  " 
shall  be  gathered  before  the  Son  of  man,  and  then 
"he  shall  separate  them  one  from  another  as  a 
shepherd  divideth  the  sheep  from  the  goats."  * 
And  this,  indeed,  is  the  only  view  which  is 
suggested  by  the  wording  of  this  passage,  one 
which  it  would  require  very  strong  argument  to 
disturb.  The  phrase  "the  small  and  the  great," 
which  is  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  Apocalypse, 
is  a  synonym  for  "all  men"  (except  where  it  is 
expressly  limited — xi.  18).  And  no  Hmitation  is 
really  suggested  by  verse  13  :  "  The  sea  gave  up 
the  dead  which  were  in  it ;  and  death  and  Hades 
gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them."  On  the 
contrary,  these  three  seem  intended  to  exhaust 
the  places  where  the  dead  are  to  be  found;  the 
mention  of  the  sea  emphasises  the  Apostle's 
desire  to  convey  the  universal  character  of  this 
resurrection  and  the  subsequent  judgment.  Not 
even  those  are  forgotten  whose  bodies  man  has 
not  been  able  to  find.     Neither  can  it  be  effec- 

-  Matt.  XXV.  31  f. :  c/.  Acts  xvii.  31 ;  Rom.  xiv.  10 ;  2  Cor. 
V.  10. 


CHAPTEK  XIX.   11— XXI.   1         801 

tively  maintained  that  "  the  books  "  contain  only 
the  record  of  evil  deeds,  and  of  the  evil  deeds  of 
the  wicked.  The  idea  of  books  containing  a 
record  of  human  action  can  be  traced  back  to 
Daniel  vii.  10:  ''  The  judgment  was  set,  and  the 
books  were  opened  "  ;  *  and  it  is  nowhere  indicated 
that  only  one  class  of  deeds  is  recorded,  or  the 
deeds  of  only  one  class  of  men. 

"We  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ."  That  is  the  fact  whereof  St.  John 
has  vision  here.  Not  even  those  are  exempt 
whose  names  are  written  in  ''the  book  of  life." 
Judged  according  to  their  works  alone,  it  might 
be  that  even  "  the  righteous  scarcely  be  saved." 
Even  those  who  build  on  the  true  foundation  may 
have  built  with  "wood,  hay,  stubble,"  as  well  as 
with  "gold,  silver,  precious  stones."  And  even 
their  work  must  be  made  manifest  "  when  the 
day  shall  declare  it."  "The  fire  shall  try  every 
man's  work  of  what  sort  it  is."  And  yet,  though 
a  man's  work  be  destroyed,  "  he  himself  shall  be 
saved;  yet  so  as  by  fire."  f  What  St.  Paul  sets 
before  us  under  one  figure,  St.  John  does  under 
another.  The  books  are  opened  wherein  is  con- 
tained the  record  of  what  a  man  has  done,  good 
and  bad.     The   best,  the  purest  of  men  might 

=*=  See  Driver's  note  on  the  passage,  and  cf.  Psa.  Ivi.  8  ; 
Isaiah  Ixv.  6. 
t  1  Pet.  iv.  17-18;  1  Cor.  iii.  11-15. 


302      THE   BOOK   OF   REVELATION 

well  shrink  before  such  a  prospect.     Even  were 
we  to  expect  that  a  balance  should  be  struck,  are 
there  many  of  us  who  would  stand  ?     But  there 
is  another  book,  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life,  the 
citizen-roll  of  the  New  Jerusalem.     And  it  is  the 
very  glory  of  our  Gospel  that  those  who  have 
humbly  trusted  in  Christ  as  their  Saviour  may 
appeal  from  the  record  of  their  own  works  even 
as  His  professed  disciples,  to  the  record  that  they 
are  His.     **  Not  by  works  of  righteousness  which 
we  have  done,  but  according  to  his  mercy,  he 
saved  us."     The  letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis 
gives  warning  of  the  possibility  that  a  man  may 
so  reject  or  forget   his  Saviour  as  to  have  his 
name  '*  blotted  out  of  the  book  of  life."     In  such 
a  case  the  appeal  would  be  from  a  dark  record  to 
an  erasure  yet  more  sad.     It  is  not  because  of  the 
witness  of  "the  books,"  but  because  his  name  is 
absent  from  "the  book,"  that  according  to  this 
vision  a  man  suffers  the  last  penalty  of  the  second 
death.     "Rejoice,"   said  Jesus  to  His  disciples, 
"rejoice  that  your  names  are  written  in  heaven." 
For  when  the  books  are  opened,  the  Book  of  Life 
is  opened  too.     And  still  it  is  "  according  to  their 
works "  that  men  are  judged ;   for  "  this  is  the 
will  of   God,  that   ye   beheve  on  him  whom  he 
hath  sent." 


JEKUSALEM  FEOM  ABOVE 

Ebv.  xxi.-xxii.  5 

This  is  the  last  of  the  visions  seen  by  St.  John 
in  Patmos  and  recorded  in  this  book,  the  vision 
of  the  Holy  City,  the  New  Jerusalem,  ''prepared 
as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband."  It  is  not 
the  first  time  that  allusion  has  been  made  to  this 
symboHc  figure  and  this  symbolic  marriage.  In  the 
burst  of  praise  which  follows  on  the  judgment  of 
Babylon  (xix.  1-10)  this  is  one  of  the  notes  we  hear, 
one  which  specially  catches  the  ear  alike  because 
of  its  novelty  and  of  the  beauty  of  its  symbolism. 
"Let  us  rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad  ...  for 
the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  his  wife 
hath  made  herself  ready."  But  between  that 
anticipatory  announcement  and  this  detailed 
account  of  the  bride-city  much  has  intervened — 
the  description  of  the  final  Judgment,  the  return 
of  Christ,  the  destruction  of  the  monster,  the 
Eesurrection  in  its  two  stages,  the  judgment  of 
men  according  to  their  works,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  Hades  and  even  of  Death  itself.     In  a 


304      THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

word,  ere  this  vision  is  described  by  John  in  all  its 
splendour  the  visions  of  Judgment  are  complete ; 
it  only  remains  to  describe  "the  things  that  God 
hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  him." 

Now  these  are  things  concerning  which  St. 
Paul  has  told  us  that  "  eye  hath  not  seen,  neither 
hath  ear  heard  them,  neither  have  they  entered 
into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive." 

And  we  mark  at  once  a  broad  distinction 
between  the  way  in  which  this  book  depicts 
the  judgments  which  are  to  fall  on  earth  and 
its  inhabitants,  and  the  way  in  which  it  describes 
the  bliss  which  is  to  be  the  portion  of  God's  own 
people  in  heaven.  We  have  found  that  the  judg- 
ments are  depicted  in  terms  of  events  which  had 
actually  occurred  in  history,  which  do  occur  in 
human  experience;  war  civil  and  international, 
famine,  plague,  and  pestilence,  earthquake  and 
eclipse,  the  poisoning  of  wells  and  devastation 
by  locusts — these  are  the  things,  and  this  is  the 
kind  of  thing,  which  supplies  the  Apostle  with 
material  for  his  description  of  judgment.  Each 
of  them  is  heightened  in  effect  by  the  complete- 
ness of  the  subsequent  ruin,  by  the  wide  area  of 
the  world's  surface  which  is  affected,  or,  it  may 
be,  by  being  traced  to  a  hellish  origin,  and  being 
revealed  as  the  visible  instrument  of  diabolic 
powers ;  but  in  their  intrinsic  character  these 
judgments  are  all  of  them  such  things  as  men 


CHAPTEK  XXI.-XXII.   5  305 

know  either  by  their  own  experience  or  by  the 
report  of  others. 

When  we  turn  from  these  to  the  description  of 
the  joys  and  glories  of  heaven,  the  first  thing  we 
are  struck  with  is  the  omission  of  nearly  every- 
thing corresponding  to  the  experience  of  enjoy- 
ment on  earth.    It  is  true,  the  city  is  described  in 
terms  of  great  splendour ;  its  foundations  are  all 
manner  of  precious  stones,  its  gates  of  pearl,  its 
streets  of  gold,  and  the  radiance  which  streams 
from  it  as  the  radiance  of  the  diamond  ;  but  this 
is  a  description  of  the  glory  which  irradiates  it, 
as  ''  having  the  glory  of  God."     Of  positive  bliss 
for  those  that  dwell  in  this  heavenly  city  the  only 
suggestion  which  is  connected  with  the  experience 
of  men  as  men  upon  earth  is  found  in  "the  tree 
of  life,  which  bare  all  manner  of  fruit,  and  yielded 
her  fruit  every  month."     And  that  is  introduced 
not  as  ministering  to  the  appetite  and  sensuous 
enjoyment  of  those  who  dwell  in  the  city,  but  as 
marking  the  removal  of  the  previous  curse,  the 
restoration  of  the   first  condition   of  life  in  the 
Garden  of  Eden,  before  man  was  condemned  to 
"eat  bread  in  the  sweat  of  his  face."     All  the 
other  features  of  the  heavenly  condition  which 
are  noted  by  John  are  either  negative  (no  more 
sea,  no  more  night,   no  more   death,  no  more 
curse)  or  spiritual  and  religious  ("  the  tabernacle 
of  God  is  with  men":    "I  will  give  unto  him 
21 


306      THE   BOOK  OF   KEVELATION 

that  is  athirst  of  the  fountain  of  the  water  of  Hfe 
freely"  :  '*  the  Lord  God  giveth  them  Hght,  and 
they  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever  ").  These  are 
the  positive  characteristics  of  the  life  of  the  city 
on  which  the  Apostle  lays  all  the  emphasis ;  and 
they  are  things  which  have  simply  no  meaning 
for  the  non-religious  man. 

There  is,  therefore,  a  striking  and  important 
contrast  between  the  Christian  anticipation  of 
heaven  as  here  portrayed  and  the  non-Christian 
pictures  of  Paradise.  And  this  is  true  not  only 
of  the  pictures  painted  by  the  fancy  of  the  Greeks, 
or  by  the  ingenuity  of  Mohammed,  but  also  of 
those  which  would  be  most  familiar  to  St.  John, 
the  pictures  of  Paradise  which  are  found  in  the 
later  Jewish  literature.  Without  being  sensual 
in  the  evil  significance  of  the  word,  as  are  some 
of  the  other  extra-Biblical  anticipations,  those  of 
the  Jewish  Apocalypses  are  largely,  if  not  mainly, 
sensuous ;  that  is  to  say,  they  delight  to  repre- 
sent the  righteous  as  enjoying  in  Paradise  the 
pleasures  of  physical  life  which  may  have  been 
denied  to  them  on  earth.  The  delights  of  heaven 
are  painted  in  very  earthly  colours,  and  are  set 
forth  as  consisting  largely  in  the  gratification  of 
physical  desire.  The  contrast  in  this  Christian 
expectation  of  the  future  is  all  the  more  striking 
because  as  regards  the  glories  of  the  city  the 
description  in  our  Apocalypse  has  many  parallels 


CHAPTEK  XXI.-XXII.   5  307 

in  the  Jewish  Hterature.  In  many  details  it 
follows  very  closely  Ezekiel's  vision  of  the  ideal 
city ;  *  but  it  omits  all  of  one  side  of  what  was 
the  popular  religious  anticipation  among  Jews  of 
the  first  century.  The  omission  must  have  been 
conscious,  if  not  deliberate.  In  other  words, 
Christian  thought  and  hope  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  heavenly  bliss  do  move  on  a 
higher  plane ;  and  this  Apostle  also  had  learned 
and  comprehended  the  truth  enunciated  by  St. 
Paul,  "  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

St.  John  sets  forth  the  heavenly  habitation  of 
God's  people  as  a  city.  That  is  the  first  main 
feature  in  his  vision  ;  and  it  is  not  affected  by  the 
fact  that  the  description  he  gives  of  the  city  is 
obviously  an  ideal  one,  one  as  far  removed  from 
possibility  as  from  reality.  This  is  seen  not  only 
in  the  area  which  the  city  is  said  to  cover,  thirteen 
hundred  miles  in  length  by  thirteen  hundred  miles 
in  breadth,  but  in  the  further  statement  that  the 
height  of  it  is  equal  to  its  length  and  breadth. 
When  we  realise  that  the  city  of  John's  vision 
is  a  cube  in  shape,  and  one  which  is  thirteen 
hundred  miles  high,  it  becomes  plain  that  there 
is,  as  Dr.  Milligan  says,  an  intentional  **  absence 
of  verisimiHtude  "  in  the  description.  The  dimen- 
sions of  the  city,  like  its  shape  and  everything 
'■''  Ezek.  xl.  ff. 


308      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

that  belongs  to  it,  are  beyond  the  compass  of 
human  experience.  Unimaginable  vastness  and 
unimaginable  glory,  these  are  the  outward 
characteristics  which  the  Apostle's  language 
should  impress  upon  our  minds.  But  though 
its  outward  form  and  splendour  are  such  as 
"  eye  hath  not  seen,"  such  as  it  profits  not  to 
attempt  to  realise  in  detail,  it  has  certain  inward 
characteristics  negative  and  positive ;  and  it  is  on 
these  that  our  attention  should  be  fixed. 

And,  first,  it  is  a  city  in  all  the  moral  sig- 
nificance of  that  idea.  A  city  is  first  the 
ambition  and  then  the  despair  of  man.  The 
great  lesson  of  this  vision  is  that  it  remains  the 
ideal  of  God.  Babylon  in  all  its  incarnations, 
from  the  first  on  the  Euphrates,  through  that 
set  upon  the  Tiber,  to  those  we  know  on  the 
Seine  or  on  the  Thames,  stands  for  the  human 
instinct  of  fellowship  and  mutual  co-operation, 
but  also  for  the  reiterated  human  experience  that 
a  great  city  is  a  great  evil.  In  vain  do  we  try 
to  stem  the  steady  tide  of  population  setting 
from  the  country  to  town.  In  vain  do  we 
deplore  the  growth  of  these  enormous  communi- 
ties. '*  Back  to  the  land  "  is  a  kind  of  despairing 
watchword,  for  the  simple  reason  that  so  few 
wish  to  go.  The  instinct  of  the  race  is  against 
it.  The  city  is  the  great  loadstone ;  men  are 
proud  of  a  city;    they  name  themselves  by  its 


CHAPTEK  XXI.-XXII.   5  309 

name;  they  sun  themselves  in  its  power  and 
splendour.  And  yet  in  the  hands  of  men  the 
city  has  become  a  monster  which  devours  its 
children.  We  hardly  dare  to  look  at  the  spoil- 
heaps  of  outworn  humanity  out  of  which  its 
wealth  has  been  extracted,  at  the  misery  and 
vice  on  the  top  of  which  most  of  its  comfort  and 
splendour  rests.  It  contains  great  areas  in  which 
it  would  be  a  kind  of  torture  for  men  of  tender 
heart  and  refined  feeling  to  be  compelled  to  dwell. 
And  all  our  effort,  legislative,  philanthropic,  and 
religious,  seems  to  fail  piteously  in  the  attempt  to 
meet  the  evils  inseparably  connected  with  a  great 
city.  Man  wrestles  despairingly  with  the  monster 
he  has  called  into  being.  And  God  *'  prepares  for 
them  a  city."  Here  is  an  amazing  antinomy, 
and  an  eloquent  one ;  an  instinct  practically 
universal,  practically  ineradicable ;  an  experience 
of  moral  and  social  failure,  repeated  from  age  to 
age,  from  country  to  country,  from  one  civilisa- 
tion to  another ;  a  kind  of  cry  from  all  who  care 
for  the  best  life  of  their  fellow-men,  "  God  help 
us  to  keep  our  cities  small "  ;  and  yet  the  ideal  life 
which  God  sets  before  us  as  the  life  of  heaven  is 
the  life  of  a  city,  with  streets,  and  walls,  and  gates, 
and  "  boys  and  girls  playing  in  the  streets  thereof." 
For  the  instinct  to  seek  a  common  life,  to 
form  a  complicated  web  of  mutual  sympathy  and 
dependence,  which  is  represented  by  a  city,  is 


310      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

after  all  a  true  one,  and  the  opportunity  for  its 
exercise  essential  alike  to  man's  true  happiness 
and  to  the  full  development  of  his  powers.  "It 
is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone  " ;  neither  is  it 
good  for  a  family  to  be  alone,  nor  yet  for  a  group 
of  families ;  and  this  vision  shoves  us  ''  the  far-off 
Divine  event"  as  realised  in  the  corporate  life  of 
humanity,  in  a  society  so  vast  that  none  of  God's 
children  is  left  out  of  it,  and  yet  so  compact  that 
it  can  best  be  described  as  the  society  of  those 
who  dwell  in  one  city. 

The  existence  of  such  a  society  and  its  heavenly 
character  are  made  possible  by  the  other  attributes 
of  the  city  which  is  described  by  John,  and,  first, 
by  those  which  may  be  called  its  negative  attri- 
butes. Human  thought  and  human  language 
alike  fail  in  the  attempt  to  depict  it  as  it  is,  but 
full  success  attends  the  effort  to  show  what  it  is 
not.  It  is  a  city  without  pain,  without  darkness, 
without  death.  These  great  shadows,  which  throw 
their  gruesome  shapes  across  every  city  man  has 
known,  all  the  blacker  for  the  sunshine  of  the 
happiness  that  edges  them,  these  grim  shadows 
are  no  more.  *'  There  shall  be  no  night  there," 
no  waning  of  the  power  and  glory  of  the  day,  no 
coming  of  that  dark  "  wherein  the  beasts  of  the 
forest  do  creep  forth,"  when — 

"  The  searching  eye  of  heaven  is  hid. 
And  thieves  and  robbers  range  abroad  unseen. 
In  murder  and  in  outrage." 


CHAPTEK  XXI.-XXII.   5  311 

But,  in  a  sense  yet  more  to  be  accounted  of,  there 
is  no  darkness  falling  on  the  human  mind,  no 
cold  clutch  of  fear  upon  the  heart  round  which  the 
night  of  sorrow  piles  her  shrouds,  no  ignorance, 
benumbing  one  set  of  faculties  and  galvanising 
another  into  the  spurious  activities  of  superstition 
and  dread  of  the  unseen.  God  is  the  light  of  that 
city,  and  every  shadow  of  doubt,  and  ignorance, 
and  fear  has  passed  away. 

There  shall  be  ''no  pain."  If  only  we  knew 
some  spot  of  earth,  some  island  of  the  blest,  of 
which  it  could  be  said,  "  There  pain  is  impos- 
sible," how  we  should  strain  and  struggle,  not 
to  get  thither  ourselves,  but  to  send  thither  this 
one  or  that  one  whom  we  love.  What  competi- 
tion there  would  be  to  be  the  sender,  not  the 
sent !  And  here  is  the  place,  not  on  earth,  but 
beyond  the  narrow  stream  of  death,  where  there 
is  no  pain,  no  grief,  no  heartbreak,  no  wounding 
of  hearts  made  tender  by  their  affection.  If  we 
knew  of  such  a  place  we  should  say  it  was 
heaven ;  and  here  it  is,  and  it  is  heaven,  the 
place  which  Christ  has  gone  to  prepare  for  His 
own. 

No  night,  no  pain,  and  no  death.  If  death  be 
the  covered  way  which  leads  to  life  Hke  that,  we 
feel  almost  as  though  we  should  miss  it  from  the 
scheme  of  things.  And  when  we  do  realise,  as 
St.  John  helps  us  to  do,  what  heaven  is,  we  can 


312      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

cry  triumphantly,  with  St.  Paul,  "  0  death,  where 
is  thy  sting?"  We  can  sing  with  St.  Francis, 
"  Blessed  be  Thou,  my  Lord,  for  our  dear  sister, 
death."  But,  albeit  death  has  lost  its  sting  for 
those  who  "  know  whom  they  have  believed," 
it  remains  a  very  bitter  thing  for  those  who  are 
"  left."  So  long  as  human  hearts  are  bound  up 
in  the  bundle  of  life  together  by  ties  of  affection 
and  love,  so  long  as  human  lives  lean  upon  one 
another  for  support  and  sympathy,  so  long  must 
death  remain  an  enemy  of  human  happiness ; 
and  few  indeed  must  be  the  hearts  which  do  not 
respond,  as  with  a  great  sigh  of  relief,  to  this 
promise.  Whatever  human  ties  are  of  such  a 
character  that  they  can  be  re-knit  yonder,  may 
be  entered  into  here,  and  enjoyed  without  fear 
of  "  the  abhorred  shears."  Man's  last  enemy  is 
slain.  Christ  "hath  abolished  death,  and  brought 
life  and  immortality  to  light." 

There  are  still  two  other  features  of  this 
heavenly  city  which  are  also  negative  in  cha- 
racter, but  distinct  from  those  which  have  gone 
before  :  there  is  no  curse,  and  there  is  no  temple. 
Ignorance,  pain,  and  death  have  gone,  because 
the  curse,  the  cause  of  them,  is  finally  lifted  off 
from  those  who  call  this  city  home.  For  ''  curse" 
stands  for  sin  in  its  effects  on  human  life,  for  sin 
as  clouding  and  perverting  the  knowledge  of  God, 
as   sowing  in   man's  constitution  the    seeds   of 


CHAPTEK  XXI.-XXII.   5  313 

sickness  and  of  pain,  as  introducing  into  human 
society  the  divisive  forces  of  selfishness  and 
cruelty,  as  giving  to  death  its  sting.  Even  the 
vision  of  the  restored  Jerusalem  seen  by  Isaiah 
had  to  find  a  place  for  "  sinners  of  a  hundred 
years  old,"  on  whom  even  there  a  curse  rested.* 
But  this  heavenly  city  of  the  Apocalypse  knovvrs 
no  more  curse.  The  second  chapter  in  our  Bible 
shows  us  man  before  the  curse  fell ;  this,  the  last 
chapter  but  one,  shows  us  his  condition  when  the 
curse  has  been  utterly  removed.  And  all  that 
lies  between  shows  us  God  at  work — to  remove 
the  curse. 

And  while  the  curse  still  stood — indeed,  so  long 
as  it  stands — there  was,  and  is,  a  temple  in^the 
city  of  God ;  because,  so  long  a  temple  is 
necessary.  Sin  has  blighted  the  whole  spiritual 
landscape  as  with  a  blast  of  fire.  It  has  made 
man  so  blind  to  God's  presence  that  it  seems  as 
though  He  were  banished  from  the  world  of  His 
own  making.  And  even  those  who  heard  His 
voice,  as  though  of  One  far  off,  and  groped  after 
Him  in  the  darkness,  seemed  to  grope  in  vain. 
And,  not  without  Divine  instigation,  they  made 
a  temple,  a  place  cut  off  and  separate,  wherein 
they  might  better  realise  His  presence,  and  more 
clearly  hear  His  voice.  They  were  to  make  a 
tabernacle  in  the  wilderness,  a  temple  in  the 
*  Isa.  Ixv.  20. 


314      THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

Holy  City.  They  were  to  make  a  temple  in  their 
time,  one  day  in  seven  cut  off  and  consecrated  to 
the  service  of  God.  They  were  to  make  a  temple 
in  their  hearts,  to  have  part  at  least  of  their  life 
and  hope  walled  in  and  consecrated,  that  it  might 
not  be  trampled  and  polluted  by  the  tumultuous 
herds  of  worldly  thoughts  and  ambitions.  They 
were  to  ''  sanctify  the  Lord  God  in  their  hearts." 
And  so  long  as  men  dwell  here  under  the  con- 
ditions of  earthly  life,  they  cannot  do  without 
these  temples,  the  place,  the  time,  the  thoughts 
marked  off  for  God,  the  place  where  we  learn  the 
secret  of  realising  His  presence  in  life,  the  time 
when  we  claim  and  proclaim  His  fellowship  with 
ourselves,  our  fellowship  with  Him,  the  thoughts 
which,  of  set  purpose,  we  direct  toward  the  mani- 
festation of  His  love  in  Christ,  and  of  His  will  in 
duty.  But  there  is  no  temple  there ;  for  the 
simple  reason  that  none  is  needed.  That  which 
now  has  to  be  delimited  from  the  world,  and  set 
apart  for  God  —  yes,  and  held  with  determina- 
tion and  force  of  will  against  invading  hosts — 
has  there  expanded  to  cover  the  whole  area 
of  human  experience  and  activity.  God's  pre- 
sence has  no  longer  to  be  sought ;  it  is  known ; 
it  is  felt,  universal  and  all-pervading  as  the 
light  of  day.  '*  The  tabernacle  of  God  is  with 
men."  The  direct  and  conscious  service  of 
God  is  not  limited  to   any  portion  of   time,  of 


CHAPTEE  XXI.-XXII.    5  315 

life,  or  of  thought ;  to  be  is  to  serve  Him,  and 
to  live  is  to  worship.  Therefore,  there  is  no 
temple  there. 

These  words  will  soon  be  used,  if  they  are  not, 
in  a  sense,  true  already,  of  that  famous  Temple 
of  Philae  in  Upper  Egypt.  There  it  has  stood  for 
two  millenniums  and  more,  visited  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  by  men  who  came  to  worship 
the  gods  to  whom  they  supposed  that  the  fertility 
of  Egypt  was  due.  Now  it  is  enisled  and  half 
submerged  in  the  vast  lake  of  Assouan,  which 
secures  the  perennial  flow  of  life-giving  waters 
to  the  land  below.  So  there  is  no  temple 
in  heaven,  because  that  of  which  it  was  the 
symbol  has  taken  its  place.  "  The  taber- 
nacle of  God  is  with  men,"  and  "the  river  of 
the  water  of  life  "  flows  through  "  the  streets 
thereof." 

Two  other  features  mark  the  heavenly  city,  and 
they  are  of  a  positive  kind.  "His  servants  shall 
serve  him."  There  is  a  distinction  between  the 
two  words  in  the  Greek,  which  is  not  readily  repro- 
duced in  Enghsh.  "His  bond-servants  shall  render 
him  the  service  of  ministry."  The  inhabitants  of 
the  city  "  see  his  face,"  and  serve  Him  with 
unclouded  vision  and  with  undivided  love.  This 
opens  what  is  perhaps  the  most  satisfying  of  all 
the  avenues  of  vision  into  the  heavenly  state.  It 
assures   us,  first   of  all,  of  continuance.     Death 


316      THE   BOOK   OF   REVELATION 

is  not  an  end  of  the  activities  and  energies  which 
have  been  consecrated  to  God.  It  is  not  the 
great  breaking  off  it  seems  to  us  who  stand 
around,  and  see  its  work,  but  the  setting  free  of 
old  powers  for  new  developments.  If  one  looks 
back  it  seems  the  end  of  a  career ;  if  forward,  it 
seems  a  career's  beginning :  in  reality  it  is  neither, 
but  an  incident  of  continuous  life.  Those  qualities 
which  we  recognise  to  inhere  particularly  in  the 
soul  or  spirit  of  man  attend  him  to  the  world 
beyond.  "  He  that  has  been  righteous,  shall  be 
righteous  still ;  he  that  has  been  holy,  shall  be 
holy  still."  And  so  with  other  quahties  of 
man's  inmost  nature — love,  justice,  generosity, 
whatever  he  has  had  here,  wherewith  he  can 
claim  or  offer  to  serve  God — remains  part  of  his 
personality,  and  finds  its  function  in  the  life  to 
come.  Only  to  all  such  quaUties  and  powers 
is  now  given  a  heightened  efficiency.  All  the 
limitations  disappear  by  which  they  have  been 
cabined  and  confined ;  the  physical  limitations, 
weakness,  sickness,  want  of  vitality,  which 
checked  the  energies  of  the  soul ;  the  social  limi- 
tations, want  of  opportunity,  hindrances  arising 
from  human  relationship  ;  the  mental  limitations 
resulting  in  mistakes,  errors,  misconceptions ;  and, 
above  all,  the  spiritual  limitations,  the  cramping, 
debilitating  influence  of  sin  and  sinful  habit ;  all 
these  disappear: 


CHAPTEE  XXI.-XXII.   5  317 

"  Fretless  and  free, 

Soul,  clap  thy  pinion  ; 
Earth  have  dominion, 
Body,  o'er  thee  ! " 

And  thus  the  promise  of  the  life  to  come  in- 
volves not  only  continuity,  but  also  completion. 
Stagnation  is  as  incompatible  with  the  life  that 
is  lived  in  the  heavenly  city  as  it  is  with  true 
life  here.  To  represent  heaven  as  a  place  of  rest 
merely  is  to  present  it  as  a  place  where  men 
would  be  less  truly  men  than  before.  Peace  and 
fellowship  with  God  do  not  exclude  activity; 
rather  must  they  stimulate  it. 

"  I  count  that  heaven  itself 
Is  only  work  to  surer  issues." 

Heaven  means  the  bringing  to  maturity  and 
perfection  of  those  powers  and  energies  which  are 
only  partially  developed  here.  **  His  servants 
shall  do  him  service  "  :  in  love  without  a  grain  of 
selfishness,  in  faith  without  a  spasm  of  doubt,  in 
knowledge  without  a  shadow  of  uncertainty.  All 
*'  those  instincts  immature,"  all  "  those  purposes 
unsure,"  which  we  recognise  in  ourselves  or  have 
guessed  in  others,  find  their  full  development, 
their  completion,  when  *'  that  which  is  in  part  is 
done  away." 

"What  here  is  faithfully  begun 
Shall  be  completed,  not  undone.*' 


318      THE  BOOK  OF  BEVELATION 

And  the  same  element  in  the  vision  gives  us 
the  final  note  of  the  heavenly  life,  Content.  "  They 
see  his  face."  They  are  satisfied.  That  may 
seem  at  first  sight  but  a  feeble  presentation  of 
the  joy  and  the  glories  of  life  in  heaven ;  but  it 
contains,  perhaps  expresses,  them  all.  To  have  a 
craving  for  love  which  only  God  can  satisfy,  and 
yet  to  be  content ;  to  have  a  desire  for  holiness 
not  less  than  the  holiness  of  God,  and  yet  to  be 
content ;  to  have  the  infinite  capacities  of  an 
eternal  spirit  set  free  from  the  trammels  of  earth 
and  the  body  of  earth,  and  yet  to  be  content ;  to 
look  back  and  see  the  meaning  of  it  all ;  to  look 
forward  and  know  that  time  and  change,  grief 
and  sin,  are  for  ever  left  behind — is  not  that  a 
heaven,  one  worth  waiting  for,  one  worth  living 
for?  "I  shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  in  thy 
likeness,"  said  the  Psalmist ;  and  when  we 
ponder  his  words,  we  see  that  human  language 
can  express  no  higher  bliss :  **  I  shall  be 
satisfied." 

These,  then,  are  the  internal  characteristics 
which  mark  the  life  of  "  the  New  Jerusalem."  No 
pain,  no  darkness,  no  death,  no  curse.  Continuity 
and  completion  of  all  in  man  that  is  truly  akin 
to  God,  and,  therewith,  content.  Beside  these, 
outward  glories  and  splendours,  however  great, 
sink  into  insignificance.  And  these  characterise 
the  life  of  redeemed  men  who  live  in  a  city.     By 


CHAPTEE  XXI.-XXII.   5  319 

that  figure  is  disclosed  their  relation  to  one 
another.  It  is  a  common  life  of  individuals,  who 
retain  their  individuality,  but  are  associated 
together  by  common  interests  for  ends  which  they 
pursue  in  common.  But  there  is  yet  another 
aspect  of  this  common  life.  The  Apostle's  store 
of  images  is  not  yet  exhausted.  One  remains, 
which  sets  forth  the  relation  of  th'e  whole  to  God. 
This  heavenly  city,  the  New  Jerusalem,  is  at  the 
same  time  "  the  bride,  the  Lamb's  wife."  Here 
the  great  Christian  idea  of  the  Church  in  its 
absolute  unity  finds  its  culmination,  we  may  say 
its  transfiguration.  The  individual  redeemed 
who  compose  the  multitude  that  no  man  can 
number,  who  as  dwellers  in  the  city  still  preserve 
their  individualities,  are  now  regarded  in  their 
oneness  in  Christ,  as  forming  but  one  body,  one 
personality,  and  that  personality  is  the  Bride  of 
Christ. 

Far  back  in  Hebrew  history  God  had  revealed 
His  relation  to  His  own  people  under  figures  drawn 
from  human  love  and  the  bond  of  marriage.  It 
was  in  this  form  that  the  great  revelation  centred 
itself  which  came  to  Hosea  through  the  tragedy 
of  his  own  home  :  **  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me 
for  ever:  yea,  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  in 
righteousness,  and  in  judgment,  and  in  loving- 
kindness,  and  in  mercies."  *  Later  prophets  find 
^  Hos.  ii.  19. 


320      THE   BOOK  OF   EEVELATION 

in  the  same  thought  the  deepest  interpretation 
of  the  undeserved  mercies  of  God.  "  Thy  Maker 
is  thine  husband  ;  the  Lord  of  hosts  is  his  name."  * 
"As  the  bridegroom  rejoiceth  over  the  bride,  so 
shall  thy  God  rejoice  over  thee."  t  And  here 
once  more  the  place  which  in  the  Old  Testament 
is  occupied  by  God,  is  offered  with  entire  simplicity 
and  unconsciousness  of  any  derogation  to  the 
Divine  dignity,  to  the  Lamb,  Christ.  The  Church 
is  His  bride.  Neither  is  this  thought  confined 
to  St.  John  or  to  the  Apocalypse.  It  was  famiHar 
to  St.  Paul,  and  the  way  he  employs  it  shows  that 
he  could  count  on  its  being  familiar  to  the 
Christians  to  whom  he  wrote.  For  he  appeals  to 
it  as  an  acknowledged  fact,  from  which  he  may 
deduce  practical  counsel  for  those  who  stand  in 
the  human  relationship,  its  type.  "Husbands, 
love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ  also  loved  the 
church  .  .  .  that  he  might  present  it  to  himself 
a  glorious  church."  I  This,  which  St.  Paul  calls 
"  a  great  mystery,"  meaning  a  deep  and  wondrous 
thing  now  revealed,  is  what  is  presented  to  St. 
John  in  vision  form.  The  ideal  of  human 
marriage  is  a  type  of  the  relation  between  Christ 
and  His  people  in  which  both  find  perfect  self- 
realisation,  perfect  satisfaction.     And  so  St.  John 

*  Is.  liv.  5. 

f  Is.  Ixii.  5  ;  cf.  Ezek.  xvi.  6-16. 

J  Eph.  V.  25-27. 


CHAPTEE  XXI.-XXII.   5  321 

beholds  the  consummation  of  redemption,  the 
final  completion  of  the  work  of  Christ,  in  "  the 
marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb,"  when  He  "  presents 
to  himself"  the  Church  for  which  He  gave 
Himself,  and  which  He  has  sanctified  and 
cleansed,  ''  as  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband." 


22 


THE   EPILOGUE 

Ebv.  xxii.  8-21 

The  vision  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  the  felicity 
of  '*  just  men  made  perfect,"  is  the  culminating 
point  in  the  Eevelation  to  and  through  John. 
When  that  has  been  described,  nothing  remains 
but  to  bring  his  book  to  a  close,  as  he  does  in 
these  last  fourteen  verses.  Of  necessity,  these 
verses  correspond  to  a  musical  diminuendo,  down 
which  the  exalted  ecstasy  sinks  rapidly  to  rest, 
reaching  again  the  level  of  daily  life,  and  daily 
waiting  for  the  end. 

"I  John  am  he  that  heard  and  saw  these 
things."  In  these  w^ords  we  hear  again  the  note 
of  personal  experience  which  was  struck  in  the 
first  chapter,  but  also  the  notes  of  wonder  that  to 
him  so  great  a  privilege  had  been  granted,  and  of 
assurance  that,  for  all  the  wonder,  it  was  true. 
Thus  we  detect  subtle  harmonies  of  mind  with 
the  declaration  with  which  the  first  Epistle  of 
John  commences  :  "  That  which  we  have  seen 
and  heard,  declare  we  unto  you."  The  Apostle 
has  '*  come  to  himself,"  and  like  David  in  Brown- 


CHAPTEB  XXII.   8-21  323 

ing's  poem,  ''  can  scarce  dare  believe  in  what 
marvels  but  now  he  took  part."  He  remembers 
that,  overwhelmed  with  the  majesty  and  beauty 
of  the  things  he  saw,  he  flung  himself  at  the  feet 
of  the  angel  who  had  showed  them  to  him,  only 
to  receive  new  cause  for  wonder  in  the  declaration 
that  he  and  his  collocutor  are  of  equal  standing  in 
the  sight  of  God.  "1  am  no  more  than  thou," 
says  the  angel  in  effect;  ''1,  and  thou,  and  thy 
brethren  the  prophets,  and  those  who  keep  the 
words  of  this  book,  are  all  but  fellow-servants." 
And  so, ''  I  John,  your  brother  and  fellow-partaker 
in  the  tribulation,  and  kingdom,  and  patience, 
that  are  in  Christ,  have  learnt  this,  that  I  and 
you  are  fellow-servants  with  the  angels.  Above 
us  there  is  only  God."  * 

From  this  point  onwards  the  angel  is  silent ; 
and  it  is  the  words  of  Christ  Himself  that  the 
Apostle  records.  And  we  find  in  these  words 
many  echoes  of  what  he  has  already  heard  from 
the  same  lips.  It  is  as  though  he  leant  his  ear 
from  afar  to  that  voice  which  was  "  as  the  voice  of 
many  waters,"  and  caught  now  only  the  stronger 

-  It  is  the  opinion  of  Bousset  {Offenharung,  p.  493)  that, 
in  the  rejection  by  the  angel  of  John's  offer  to  worship  him, 
we  have  the  Apostle's  protest,  twice  repeated  (c/.  xix.  10), 
against  the  worship  of  angels,  which,  not  unknown  in  later 
Judaism,  was  beginning  to  invade  the  Christian  Church, 
possibly  along  the  channel  of  Jewish  Christianity.  Compare 
Col.  ii.  18. 


324      THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

notes  of  its  rhythmical  beat.  ''  Behold,  I  come 
quickly  "  ;  '*  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega  " ;  "I  am 
the  root  and  offspring  of  David  "  ;  ''  He  that  is 
athirst,  let  him  come  "  ;  "I  come  quickly."  He 
seems  to  be  recording  not  so  much  what  he  heard 
when  the  visions  were  ended,  as  the  great  key 
sentences  of  our  Lord's  communications  to  him, 
the  words  of  Christ  on  which  he  built  the  fabric 
of  his  faith  and  the  stronghold  of  his  patience. 
But  in  the  midst  of  these  utterances,  already 
familiar  in  his  ear  and  ours,  he  hears  the  com- 
mand :  *'  Seal  not  up  the  words  of  the  prophecy  of 
this  book";  and  the  reason  is  assigned,  namely, 
that  "  the  time  is  at  hand."  It  is  impossible  not 
to  feel  that  a  contrast  is  here  intended  with  the 
instructions  given  once  and  again  to  Daniel  regard- 
ing his  visions.  "  Thou,  0  Daniel,  shut  up  the 
words,  and  seal  the  book,  even  to  the  time  of  the 
end."  "  The  vision  is  true ;  but  shut  thou  up  the 
vision,  for  it  belongeth  to  many  days  to  come."  * 
For  Daniel  the  end  was  still  many  days  and  years 
away,  and  the  closed  record  of  his  vision  was  to 
be  kept  as  it  were  in  proof  of  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence which  guided  events  to  their  destined  issue  : 
for  John  the  end  seemed  very  near,  and  the 
book  of  his  vision  was  to  be  left  open,  that  men 
might  draw  comfort  and  encouragement  from 
its  contents  during  the  storms  of  judgment. 
-■'  Dan.  xii.  4  ;  viii.  26  ;  cf.  xii.  9. 


CHAPTEK  XXII.   8-21  825 

This  immediately  impending  end  gives  also  the 
explanation  of  the  following  verse :  "  He  that  is 
unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still;  ...  he  that  is 
holy,  let  him  be  holy  still."  That  is  to  say,  the 
judgment  is  so  near  that  men's  characters,  and  so 
their  destinies,  are  practically  fixed ;  there  is  no 
longer  fear  of  fleck  or  stain  on  the  holiness  of 
the  holy,  no  longer  hope  of  retrieval  for  those 
who  have  chosen  to  be  unjust,  impure.  The 
''  day  of  salvation  "  is  passed ;  the  choice  is  made, 
and  the  door  is  shut. 

It  may  be  that  what  St.  John  and  the  primi- 
tive Church  as  a  whole  anticipated  as  the  end, 
proved,  when  it  came,  to  be  only  an  end;  the 
end  indeed  for  those  on  whom  the  judgment  fell, 
but  only  one  of  the  many  stages  by  which  the  end 
draws  near.  And  it  would  be  unwise  indeed 
were  we  to  allow  questions  about  what  they 
thought,  about  the  meaning  of  the  end,  or  the 
form  and  date  of  its  arrival,  to  distract  our  atten- 
tion from  the  really  important  thing,  namely, 
that,  come  the  end  how  it  may,  in  the  crash 
of  falling  worlds,  or  with  the  whisper,  "  He  is 
gone," — this  is  what  it  means :  he  that  is  holy, 
shall  remain  holy;  he  that  is  impure,  shall 
remain  impure. 

"  Let  such  men  rest 

Content  with  what  they  judged  the  best ; 

Let  the  unjust  usurp  at  will ; 

The  filthy  shall  be  filthy  stiU ; 


326      THE  BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

Miser,  there  waits  the  gold  for  theel 
Hater,  indulge  thine  enmity  ! 
And  thou,  whose  heaven  self-ordained 
Was  to  enjoy  earth  unrestrained, 
Do  it. 

Take  thy  world!     Expend 
Eternity  upon  its  shows, 
Flung  to  thee  freely  as  a  rose 
Out  of  a  summer's  opulence 
Over  the  Eden-barrier,  whence 
Thou  art  excluded.     Knock  in  vain." 

After  all,  heaven  is  not  a  place,  though  we 
needs  must  think  of  it  as  such ;  heaven  is  a 
condition  localised.  The  condition  is  that  of 
just  men  made  perfect,  that  is,  of  men  who  have 
loved  justice,  have  hungered  and  thirsted  after 
righteousness,  have  been  conscious  of  coming 
short,  at  every  turn,  of  the  righteousness  of  God, 
and  now — are  satisfied.  It  is  the  condition  of 
men  who  have  striven  with  all  too  imperfect 
success  to  keep  their  garments  ''unspotted  from 
the  world,"  and  now  '*  walk  with  Christ  in 
white,"  beyond  the  reach  of  stain  from  selfish- 
ness or  sin.  The  end — for  them  the  hoped-for 
end — is  the  moment  when  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  in  themselves  are  made  perfect  and  made 
permanent. 

Neither  is  hell  a  place,  though  we  think  of  it 
as  such.  It  also  is  a  condition  localised,  the 
condition  of  having  chosen  evil  and  having  the 
choice   made    permanent,   sated    lust   compelled 


CHAPTEK  XXII.   8-21  327 

to  feed  for  ever  on  the  ashes  of  dead  passion, 
the  Circe-rout  of  God-denying  revelry  fixed  down 
as  the  unevadable  routine  of  eternity. 

Does  even  the  picture  of  the  Nev7  Jerusalem 
give  a  more  soul -satisfying  account  of  heaven 
than  this  ?  Does  art  or  poetry,  human  eloquence 
or  even  the  Word  of  God  in  any  other  place,  give 
a  picture  of  the  condition  of  those  v^^ho  reject  God 
so  appalling  as  this?  x\nd  given  the  condition, 
chosen  by  the  two  classes  of  men  respectively, 
the  issue  is  inevitable.  "Myself  am  hell,"  if 
I  have  said  to  evil,  ''  Be  thou  my  god." 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  man  would 
consciously  commit  sin  against  himself  or  against 
his  neighbour,  if  he  did  not  have  somewhere 
about  him  the  idea  that  he  could  stop  when  he 
thought  fit,  that  he  knew  when  to  draw  the  line, 
that  he  would  be  able  to  pull  up  before  he  had 
gone  too  far.  And  it  is  just  this  possibility  of 
stopping,  this  prudential  limitation,  which  is 
finally  swept  away  by  judgment  when  it  comes. 
And  that  judgment  falls  on  some  one  every  hour. 
It  falls  on  sin  of  every  kind.  The  man  who  has 
chosen  idleness  will  at  last  be  unable  to  rise  to 
any  effort  of  labour ;  the  selfish  will  grow  in 
selfishness  till  the  voices  that  call  for  his  sym- 
pathy and  help  fail  to  reach  his  ear,  and  the  man 
who  has  deliberately  turned  away  from  God  will 
seek  Him  in  the  day  of  need,  and  find — nothing. 


328      THE   BOOK  OF  EEVELATION 

It  is  from  such  disastrous  ending  to  life  that 
God  offers  to  men  a  way  of  escape  in  offering 
a  means  by  which  they  may  be  dehvered  from 
sin  in  all  its  forms.  There  is  One  to  whom  the 
name  of  ''Jesus"  was  given,  because  He  should 
''save  his  people  from  their  sins";  from  these 
very  tempers,  dispositions,  habits,  which  would 
make  a  hell  of  heaven  itself  for  a  man  who  had 
them.  And  even  one  who  has  shuddered  at  the 
near  prospect  of  making  final  choice  of  evil,  and 
prayed  a  prayer  so  near  to  hopelessness  as  this, 

"Thou  Love  of  God!     Or,  let  me  die, 
Or  grant  what  shall  seem  heaven  almost ! 
Let  me  not  know  that  all  is  lost, 
Though  lost  it  be  : 

Let  that  old  life  be  mine — no  more — 
With  limitations  as  before, 
With  darkness,  hunger,  toil,  distress ; 
Be  all  the  earth  a  wilderness : 
Only  let  me  go  on,  go  on. 
Still  hoping  ever  and  anon 
To  reach  one  eve  the  Better  Land" — 

even  such  an  one  may  know  a  Saviour  who  comes 
and  waits  to  save.  And  if  John's  vision  of  the 
certainty  and  awfulness  of  judgment  does  stir 
in  us  the  sense  of  personal  unfitness  to  share 
the  life  of  heaven,  it  is  to  this  Saviour  that  he 
sends  us. 

As  we  take  our  stand  with  John,  straining  eye 
and  ear  to  catch  the  last  fringes  of  the  departing 


CHAPTER  XXII.  8-21  329 

vision  and  the  last  echoes  of  the  heavenly  voice, 
this  is  what,  with  him,  we  see  and  hear,  the 
figure  and  the  voice  of  Christ.  The  Book  of 
Eevelation  has  greatly  served  other  great  pur- 
poses. It  has  revealed  as  no  other  single  book 
in  the  Bible  that  eternal  background  which  gives 
their  true  meaning  to  events  in  space  and  time, — 
God  ''  who  created  all  things,"  because  of  whose 
will  they  are  and  were  created,  the  Lamb,  ''slain 
before  the  foundation  of  the  world,"  the  symbol 
of  that  eternal  love  in  God  which  of  necessity 
becomes  suffering  when  it  passes  under  the 
shadow  cast  by  human  sin.  It  reveals  the 
secular  march  of  human  history,  as  men,  genera- 
tions, peoples,  ripen  for  judgment,  and  fall  before 
its  scythe;  the  even-handed  justice  of  God, 
meting  out  retribution  to  the  wicked,  and  salva- 
tion to  His  faithful  ones  ;  the  flimsy  character 
of  the  stoutest  bulwarks  and  champions  of  evil, 
and  the  sure  victory  of  righteousness  and  of  God. 
All  this  has  been  set  forth  with  a  force  of  con- 
viction and  a  wealth  of  illustration  to  which  even 
Holy  Scripture  affords  no  parallel ;  and  from  all 
this  God's  people  in  "  Asia  "  were  to  draw  fresh 
courage  for  the  grim  conflict  in  which  they  were 
engaged,  and  fresh  hope  to  sustain  them  in  the 
dark  days  of  persecution. 

It  has  been  the  primary  object  of  the  foregoing 
chapters  to  make  clear  the  meaning  and  purpose 


330       THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

of  the  book,  as  a  whole  as  well  as  in  its  parts,  and 
that  mainly  by  showing  the  connection  between 
the  parts  and  the  contribution  they  severally 
make  to  the  total  impression.  If  the  meaning 
of  these  parts,  the  links  which  connect  them, 
and  the  relation  in  which  they  stand  to  one 
another,  have  been  pointed  out  with  any  measure 
of  success,  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  have 
recourse  to  any  of  the  modern  theories  of  the 
composition  of  the  Apocalypse.  The  history  of 
these  theories  is  extremely  interesting,  and  the 
investigations  on  which  they  are  based  have 
greatly  contributed  to  our  understanding  of  the 
book ;  but,  in  so  far  as  they  seek  to  distinguish 
different  documents  and  the  work  of  different 
hands,  in  the  book  as  it  lies  before  us,  it  cannot 
be  said  that  any  one  of  them  has  succeeded  in 
commending  itself  as  probable.  On  the  contrary, 
the  impression  gains  ground  that  the  book  is 
from  the  hand  of  one  man.  The  passages  which 
have  furnished  many  of  the  arguments  in  favour 
of  a  ''documentary  hypothesis,"  appear  to  be 
capable  of  a  simple  explanation,  if  we  regard 
them  as  quotations  made  by  the  Apostle.  And 
the  probability  of  this  is  increased  in  the  case  of 
one  who  beyond  question  makes  copious  use 
of  other  documents,  the  prophetic  books  of  the 
Old  Testament,  It  would  be  only  natural  to  sup- 
pose that  the  same  man  might   make   use  also 


CHAPTER  XXII.   8-21  331 

of  traditional  material,  cognate  to  his  subject, 
which  might  be  found  in  apocalyptic  literature 
subsequent  to  the  close  of  the  Old  Testament 
canon.  We  found  the  clearest  case  of  this  in  the 
seventh  chapter,  where  the  Apostle  appears  first 
to  quote  a  document  of  Jewish  origin,  and  then, 
in  the  second  half  of  the  chapter,  to  build  on  that 
its  Christian  counterpart,  in  which  we  see  both 
contrast  and  completion.  We  found  the  same 
again  in  the  eleventh  chapter,  and  a  simple 
explanation  of  the  difficult  vision  of  the  measur- 
ing of  the  Temple,  and  the  two  witnesses  ;  and 
once  more,  in  the  twelfth  chapter,  where  the 
vision  of  the  woman,  the  child,  and  the  dragon, 
which  on  any  other  hypothesis  is  full  of  difficulty, 
is  incorporated  as  the  basis  and  explanation  of 
the  vision  of  the  monster  by  which  it  is  followed. 
Another  thing  which  greatly  helps  to  clear 
away  the  difficulties  that  have  gathered  round 
this  book,  is  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  it 
contains  no  chronology  of  the  future.  There  are 
many  sincere  students  of  the  Bible  who  have 
been  repelled  from  the  study,  and  even  from  the 
use,  of  the  Apocalypse,  by  the  foolish  fashion  of 
treating  it  as  a  kind  of  cryptogram,  the  solution 
of  which  would  give  dates  and  particulars  con- 
cerning the  end  of  the  world.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  attempt  to  treat  it  so  is  not  only  made  in 
defiance  of  our  Lord's  plain  warnings,  but  rests 


332      THE   BOOK   OF   KEVELATION 

on  a  misconception  of  the  character  of  the 
figures  and  numerals  used  throughout  the  book 
These  numbers,  whether  appKed  to  days,  months, 
or  years,  are  used  in  a  purely  conventional  way, 
and  describe  not  the  duration  of  a  period,  but  its 
character.  In  other  words,  what  St.  John  saw 
was  exactly  what  he  says  he  saw — a  vision,  a 
picture.  He  saw  it  "in  the  flat."  Behind  his 
picture  of  events  in  time  there  was  never  wanting 
the  background  of  external  realities;  but  what 
perspective  the  foreground  had  was  very  short ; 
for  St.  John  the  very  furthest  event  which  he 
foresaw  was  very  near.  He  gives  us  to  see  the 
principles  on  which  the  Divine  process  moves  to 
judgment ;  but  he  does  not  give  us  any  material 
by  which  it  would  be  possible  to  reckon  when  the 
last  hour  will  strike. 

And  the  same  consideration,  that  this  is  a 
record  of  things  seen,  a  series  of  veritable  vision- 
pictures,  throws  further  light  on  that  feature  of 
the  book  to  which  reference  has  just  been  made, 
one  which  the  hasty  reader  sometimes  finds 
perplexing,  namely,  the  repeated,  one  might 
almost  say  the  regular,  alternation  of  the  scenes, 
from  heaven  to  earth,  and  back  to  heaven.  This 
is  what  John  has  seen,  heaven  behind  the  show 
of  earth  ;  and  were  we  speaking  of  him  as  of  an 
ordinary  writer,  we  should  say  that  this  was  his 
governing  purpose,  to  set  everything  that  hap- 


CHAPTEK  XXII.   8-21  333 

pens,  or  is  to  happen,  on  earth,  in  the  light  of 
what  already  is,  and  always  will  be,  in  heaven. 
This  is  what  gives  his  book  at  once  its  title,  its 
meaning,  and  its  value.  It  is  the  Apocalypse,  the 
unveiling  of  those  eternal  facts  which  are  hidden 
from  us  by  the  veil  of  sense,  God  in  the  heavenly 
temple,  the  Lamb  slain,  the  Lamb  victorious,  the 
Son  of  man  holding  the  Churches  in  His  hand, 
the  powers  of  evil  already  vanquished  and  cast 
out  of  heaven.  And  much  of  what  is  otherwise 
perplexing  in  the  construction  of  the  book, 
becomes  plain  when  we  recognise  the  nature  of 
the  writer's  task,  the  difficulties  that  attend  it, 
and  his  constant  effort  to  hold  events  in  time  in 
close  relation  to  the  facts  of  eternity. 

It  is  not  suggested  that  the  meaning  of  every 
detail  is  yet  clear,  or  all  the  subtle  Hnks  by  which 
one  part  of  the  vision  is  connected  with  another ; 
the  book  is  full  of  symbolism  which  owed  its 
meaning  partly  to  ideas,  partly  to  practices,  many 
of  which  have  long  been  forgotten.  But  here 
again  a  great  deal  is  gained  when  we  have  recog- 
nised that  all  these  symbols  had  a  definite 
meaning  for  the  writer's  own  time,  and  that  most 
of  them,  if  not  all,  had  a  history  of  their  own.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  point  to  any  of  these  symbols 
which  is  certainly  used  for  the  first  time;  some 
of  them  have  a  history  which  can  be  traced  back 
for  many  centuries.     These  are   mainly  such  as 


334      THE   BOOK   OP   EEVELATION 

are  of  Jewish  origin.  For  others,  it  is  only  as 
by  the  efforts  of  investigation  in  many  different 
fields  we  are  enabled  to  reconstruct  the  social 
and  religious  situation  in  Asia  when  this  book 
was  written,  that  some  of  them  will  yield  up  their 
full  meaning.  In  this  respect,  as  in  others,  much 
progress  has  been  made  in  the  last  few  years. 
The  most  recent  discoveries  of  Professor  Eamsay 
are  likely  to  throw  light  on  points  which  are  still 
obscure,  on  the  white  stone,  and  the  "mark  of 
the  beast,"  and  the  forms  of  persecution.  The 
book  and  the  monuments  of  the  land  for  which  it 
was  first  written  are  beginning  reciprocally  to 
illuminate  one  another,  and  every  fresh  discovery 
confirms  the  living  relation  between  the  two. 

But  we  need  not  wait  for  perfect  understanding 
of  all  the  details,  or  even  for  a  completely  satis- 
factory history  of  its  contents,  in  order  to  grasp 
its  meaning  and  to  feel  its  power.  Whether  we 
see  behind  the  veil  when  lifted  the  tranquil 
securities  of  heaven  or  the  confused  and  heroic 
struggles  of  earth,  there  stands  ever  as  the  centre 
figure,  veiled  or  manifest,  Christ.  It  is  He  through 
whom  the  Kevelation  comes ;  it  is  He  who  moves, 
seen  only  by  the  Apostle,  in  and  out  among  the 
seven  candlesticks  ;  it  is  He  who  alone  is  found 
worthy  to  open  the  sealed  Book  of  Judgment. 
From  first  to  last  His  presence  is  felt,  even  when 
it  is  not  expressly  alluded  to  ;  what  He  has  done, 


CHAPTEK  XXII.   8-21  335 

what  He  has  undergone,  for  men,  is  what  can, 
and  alone  can,  transfigure  Hfe.  It  is  this  which 
gives  the  Apocalypse  its  place  at  the  close  and 
climax  of  the  New  Testament,  this  which  gives  it 
its  place  in  the  heart  of  Christ's  disciples.  It 
describes  as  no  other  book  does  the  glory  of  our 
ascended  Lord,  and  the  triumphant  issue  of  His 
conflict  with  evil ;  the  pictures  which  it  draws  of 
heaven  and  those  that  dwell  there,  of  the  new  life 
where  '*  there  shall  be  no  more  sorrow,  nor  crying, 
neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain,"  commend 
themselves  to  the  Christian  heart  not  alone  for 
their  intrinsic  beauty,  but  because  Christ  is  so 
plainly  set  forth  as  the  Lord  of  that  Hfe,  and  His 
sacrifice  as  the  way  by  which  men  attain  to  it. 

And,  as  the  light  of  the  setting  sun  lingers 
longest  *'  on  those  dear  hills  where  first  he  rose," 
so  St.  John  dwells  at  the  end  of  his  book  on  what 
had  first  inspired  him  to  write,  the  Person  and 
Message  of  his  Lord.  That  figure  with  which  he 
held  converse  in  the  opening  chapter,  has  in  the 
interval  expanded,  as  it  were,  so  that  all  history 
and  all  heaven  seem  to  be  included  in  the  revela- 
tion which  comes  through  Him.  And  now  the 
Seer's  vision  contracts  again,  to  behold  Christ 
alone.  His  interest,  which  has  swept  round  the 
seven  Churches,  taking  in  their  individuality,  their 
danger,  their  opportunity,  which  has  embraced 
the   rise   and   fall   of    kings,   the    overthrow    of 


336       THE   BOOK  OF  KEVELATION 

imperial  tyranny,  and  the  destruction  of  the  forces 
of  evil,  contracts  again,  and  focuses  on  one  point 
— Jesus.  Once  more  he  hears  his  Master  speak 
as  in  the  old  days  in  Galilee,  *'I,  Jesus."  For 
John  they  are  the  same,  the  Lamb  whose  exalted 
glory  shines  on  every  page  of  his  book,  and  Jesus, 
He  that  was  once  "of  Nazareth."  And  so,  his 
hope,  which  has  shot  out  to  include  ''all  nations 
and  kindreds  and  tongues,"  to  lay  hold  on  heaven 
itself,  is  now  focussed  as  on  one  Person,  so  on  one 
Event,  Jesus  and  His  coming.  All  is  in  Him ; 
all  hangs  on  that.  All  else  is  forgotten,  the  pains 
and  anxieties  of  the  Church  on  earth,  the  peace 
and  felicity  of  the  Church  in  heaven.  The  book 
goes  out  on  a  kind  of  fugue  on  the  word,  "  Come." 
"The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say.  Come";  the  Spirit 
searching  the  deep  things  of  man  and  interpret- 
ing the  unwritten  yearnings  of  the  race,  saith, 
"Come";  the  Bride,  the  Church  of  Christ, 
weary  yet  willing  to  wait,  willing  to  wait  yet 
weary,  saith,  "Come."  And  he  "that  heareth 
and  understandeth "  all  that  is  meant  by  the 
coming,  saith,  "Come."  And  all  together,  the 
Spirit,  the  Church,  and  the  men  who  have  heard, 
unite  to  plead  with  the  man  who  has  not  found 
the  water  of  life,  and  with  tender  urgency  bid 
him  "  Come,"  and  take  freely,  in  order  that 
having  drunk  from  the  well  of  salvation  he  may 
add  his  voice  to  their  prayer.     And  the  answer 


CHAPTER   XXII.   8-21  337 

falls :  "  Behold,  I  come  quickly."  "  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  you ;  and,  if  I  go,  I  will  come 
again,  and  take  you  to  myself." 

"  He  lifts  me  to  the  golden  doors : 

The  flashes  come  and  go  ; 
All  heaven  bursts  her  starry  floors, 

And  strews  her  lights  below, 
And  deepens  on  and  up:  the  gates 

Roll  back,  and  far  within 
For  me  the  heavenly  Bridegroom  waits, 

To  make  me  pure  of  sin." 

Blessed  are  they  who,  after  reading  "the  words 
of  the  book  of  this  prophecy,"  can  say,  "  Even  so, 
come,  Lord  Jesus." 


UNWIN  BROTHEEg    LIMITED-  PRINTERS.  WOKING  AND  LONDON. 

23 


Date  Due 

FACULIt' 

'h  ^9  '42 

.    -/        'X.f ' 

t. 

^ 

AMUBm 

U&'5 

^ 

